Birds of Prey
by splitsanity
Summary: Idk yet, but here goes: The new kid at school, Albert Ross, has a secret. He's trying to find his birth parents. All he knows is that they are government employees. He makes friends with Fenton, and manages to insult Dash within one period. I'm thinking it's going to be a swaggerbishie fic (why I started writing it but we'll see as we go) So Slash, don't like don't read! Don't Own!
1. Chapter 1

**_So new territory for me! I'd like to thank LacedWithIce, Lemonybean, and spoodle monkey to the introduction to the wonderful world of swaggerbishie! Here's my take on this Prince and the Pauper-esque love story..._**

"FENTON!" screamed Dash.

"Great," Danny said sighing. "I wish my ghost sense could let me know why Dash was in a bad mood."

"Relax, man, maybe he's just trying to find his partner for Chemistry," Tucker joked lightly. He knew he was wrong, given how loud the blonde boy had screamed the name.

Danny mulled over just going invisible and get to 2nd period English before Dash grabbed, but he decided against the idea.

"What do you want, Dash?" Danny said nonchalantly, as he closed his locker, with his back toward Dash. Only to be slammed into it.

"I failed my Chemistry test! I even went and to see your sister for tutoring again and I still failed," Dash screamed at Fenton's face as he turned the smaller teen around and grabbed him by the collar of his typical white shirt with the red dot on the chest. Dash slammed him into the locker again. "And now I get to work with you on our project that Mr. Tolsoyski gave us! I don't know why we couldn't choose our own partners!" Dash yelled at Danny releasing him. Danny slid down the metal indention from the wall.

"I think he wanted us to get to know the other students and develop our interpersonal skills with students that with whom we don't typically partner up. Why else would he have stuck me with Star," Sam chimed in on the argument, barely holding back the clear disdain she even had for the satellite of Pauline, or in Sam's words – _that shallow, little witch_.

Dash glared at her. He knew better than to hit a woman, so he just glared. "Mason, you've caused enough trouble this year and if that's the case, I've got a whole football team I could have chosen from since I always pair up with Kwan!"

"Yeah, but, Dash, are any of them that are in our class smarter than Sam or Tucker?" Danny said as he pulled himself up from the floor, rubbing his shoulder.

"GRRR! I'm so outta here," yelled Dash. "But before I go," Dash got in Danny's face and whispered to the boy, "I'll be at your house at 2100 tonight after practice. No funny business."

…

English was hell. All Danny was thinking about was Dash coming over tonight. _What would possess him to want to come over to my house? He could have said to meet up at the library. I know that his house all the way across town, and the library is like a couple blocks from mine. What is he planning?_

A blue wisp of cold ghost energy passed from his lips.

_Shit, not now._ Danny looked around and listened for any one of his enemies that was known for attacking him at school. _Skulker, Ember, Desirée, that old Lunch Lady, Walker, Technus, Fright Night, the Box Ghost_… Well, he could handle the Box Ghost…

But no one of them appeared. Lancer walked in with a new student. Cobalt blue Chucks adorned the feet with white laces, khaki slacks, with a sky blue dress shirt, a mahogany bowtie and a corduroy blazer dressed the boy. "Good Morning, Class," Lancer started in his usual chipper voice. "We have a new student from–"

"Salem 'eights, Minnesota," interrupted the blue haired boy.

"Yes, Salem Heights," Lancer looked at the boy with disdain for interrupting, although he was used to it. "His name is Albert Ross."

" 'Ello," Ross stated with a feigned accent. He looked at Sam, flashed a smile, and winked. She just sat there like, _Huh?_

"Alright, Mr. Ross, take your see there by Star, and we'll begin class. Now, what were we talking about Friday–"

Danny tuned out everything Lancer was saying, like anything else was new in the semester he'd had his ghost powers. _Why did my ghost sense go off? Is that new kid a ghost? Is he a half-ghost like me? Why is he smiling at me?_

Albert looked across the room to Danny, with a pleasant smile beaming. _So this is the famous Casper High in Amity Park. Have they been through here? I've heard that there's been a high level of spectral energy surrounding this town, I'm sure they have. I hate chasing after them. I hope I'll find them some day._

…

After Lancer finished lecturing for the day (and the bell had rung), Danny made it to his locker where there was a note taped on the door. Danny took it down and opened it up. "Hey, was wondering if you wer–" The note got snatched out of his hand. Sam looked at the note and turned three shades of jealous. "Whatever," she said as she shoved the note back into Danny's chest. _What's her problem? It's not like we're dating, _thought Danny.

Three lockers down, Danny noticed the new kid, Alphonse, struggling with the locker combination. He walked down to him. "Hey, man, this one's a bit finicky. Once you put in the combination, you gotta bang the lock mechanism to release the lock. Like so," as he demonstrated to the blue haired boy. "Name's Danny, I had this locker when I first got here. I noticed you were in my 2nd period English with Lancer."

"Thanks, man. The name's Albert. But you can call me Al, or even Ross, I don't like _Albert_," the kid said with a slight cringe of disdain in his voice underneath his slight southern drawl. "Guessin' the metal's too damaged from bullying, huh?"

Danny stared at the boy and thought, _How does he know about me being bullied? Oh yeah, bullying is universal._ "Yeah, pretty much. And the school is too cheap to spring for new mechanisms."

"Same bullshit, different school, right" Ross questioned with a smile at the half-ghost.

"Welcome to Casper High."

…

3rd and 4th periods for Danny–Algebra and Phys. Ed., respectively–were boring as usual. Al wasn't in his algebra class but Danny did notice that he had the same period for gym. He took notice in the locker room that underneath the sci-fi geek of a boy was a rather cut body–an emerging 6-pack, that 'v' some of the cheerleaders (and Sam) were always talking about, very toned biceps and triceps, and a slightly hairy chest with some defined pectoral muscles. Dash came up to the boy and Danny started to walk over to the new kid to spare him a beating.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here? A loser-geek trying to be an athlete. I gotta say man, that's a nice physique you got. What's your name?"

"Al. Al Ross."

"Well, Al Ross, name's Dash, this is Kwan, and these two here are Jeremiah and Scott. We're the main force on the football team and in the school."

"That's great to know, dude. Now if you don't mind, I'd like to get dressed in peace," Ross said as he turned away from the team and started to put on his black shirt.

"Hey, don't you disrespect me like that! I'm the king of Casper High."

"Yeah well, from where I'm standing, I don't give to katydi's. You can be the Pope of BFE, for all I care. Can I get dressed in peace?" Ross asked in stern voice as he straightened his back and pulled his shoulders apart. From this view, since he was behind the new kid, Danny could see a very well form set of delts, defining a broad set of shoulders. Ross stood inches from his attacker and about the same height, maybe two inches shorter than Dash. His ghost sense flashed again. _Where is the ghost, _Danny thought as his eyes scrambled around the locker room. Someone was standing up to Dash and this was going to be interesting.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Thanks for reading Chapter 1! Idk if I put in the other chapter, that this is after gym class, but i'm telling you here: Gym class is just finishing up and the boys are changing back into their street clothes. R&R!**_

"So, what are you gonna do? Fight _me_, Rossironi? Cause _I'm_ quarterback of the football team. Ain't nobody here's tough enough or brave enough to beat me yet!"

"The key word in that statement was _yet_," Ross said has his brow furrowed into anger, getting in the boy's face. Suddenly, Ross looked as though he had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, backing and turning away from Dash. "I may look small but I pack quite a punch, Dashy-boy. I'm sure I could run circles around you six ways from Sund'y. But here's the problem, I'll never throw the first punch," Ross stated as he grabbed his gym bag from the bench in locker room. With that thought out of his head and mouth, he left the locker room, fully dressed in his cosplay outfit.

Dash was dumbfounded by the boy's statement, and when Dash got dumbfounded, he had a tendency to hit things (or people, whichever the case may be).

Danny instantly went invisible and intangible so he could slip through the metal lockers. He grabbed his jeans and white shirt as he phased through the metal containers so he could go the bathroom in the hall and change. He wanted to be as far away from Dash as possible!

…

Lunch time:

Fenton came out of the bathroom in his street clothes, with gym clothes in tote. He had successfully avoid the wrath of the quarterback and bully. _Wow, wish I could do that! As Phantom, I can, but if I tried that as Fenton I'd be pummeled even quicker,_ Danny thought to himself as he was putting his clothes back into his locker.

Next up on his to-do list: Lunch.

Danny had come to be wary of lunch since Sam had that ultra-recyclo shit that week at the beginning of the semester. He was afraid that that old Lunch Lady ghost would comeback. He smelled like steak for weeks after the incident; dogs were chasing him for hours as Phantom when he went on patrol. _What's on the menu for today_, Danny wondered as he went to Sam's locker. He was sort of hoping that what _ever_ mood she was in before had sort of dissipated since then. "Hey, Sam!"

"Danny," was all he got as she slammed the metal door.

"So are you still sore about that note? Honestly, Sam, I don't know who sent it and I'm probably not even going to go. I never know what my weekend plans are since I got these powers. And typically they somehow always involve you anyway, so why are you so fussy?"

"I don't know, I just…"

"Hey, guys! Ready for lunch? I hear they've got hamburgers today," Tucker exclaimed as he joined the two entering into the cafeteria.

"AWESOME!"

"great…" Sam sighed with utter despair. "I'm glad I pack my lunch now. It's simpler."

The boys went through the line to get the meat, while Sam looked around the place for a seat. She noticed the boy from 2nd period eating alone. He had a huge salad in front of him, which he seemed to be enjoying. She got a little giddy and halfway skipped over to him. She looked down at the salad, and underneath the load of honey mustard dressing, she saw a couple of chicken. She looked up to the boy, _Well, he's kinda cute. I guess I can sit here with him since a) he's alone, being the new kid, and b) I practically ran over here since I saw him eating the salad_.

"Hey, there, darlin'," Al said. "Nice to meet you, I'm Al."

_He has a nice smile and a complete Whovian_, Sam thought as she sat across from him. "I'm Sam. Don't we have 2nd period English together?"

"I think so. I move around so much that all my periods and classmates kinda blur into one big eight hour day," Al said as he took a bite of the salad.

Sam inspected the salad more closely now that she was closer to it. It was a healthy salad different leaves of several types of lettuce. She took note of the pineapple chunks, blackberries, and chopped almonds mixed in the roughage. It actually looked pretty good, but it had chicken. "What kind of salad is that?"

"Don't know. I found the recipe once when I was younger and made it. Love the dressing, it's a homogenous pineapple juice and ranch mix; it has this calypso, Hawaiian taste to it," the boy said with a shuffle of his hands as if they were on top of a set of DJ records. "Wanna try it?" Al picked up a bite with the fork and offered it to her.

"No, thanks, I'm an ultra-recyclovegitarian."

"What's that mean?"

"It means I don't eat anything with a face on it, sorry," Sam said with a small wince on her face, trying to ease the dejection.

"Oh…well, ok," Al said, with a little disappointment as he ate the food himself.

"Danny! Over here!" Sam yelled, when she looked up to see what was taking her boys so long to get their food.

"Danny? You know him?" Al looked at her quizzically.

"Yeah. How do you know him?"

"I met him earlier before gym. He showed me how get my locker open."

"Cool. Just so you know, the black kid with him is Tucker. He's a might full of himself."

"Well, it takes all types…"

"Hey, Danny, Tucker. Tucker, this is Al. He's in our English class."

Tucker was in front and sat beside the new boy. Danny, on the other hand, had the same blue wisp fly out of his mouth. He gave a glance over of the cafeteria and decided his powers just be on the fritz again and ignored it. Sam had this deer in headlights look about her that Danny noticed. Tucker didn't seem to notice the attention that the other two might give themselves whiplash from looking around so quickly.

Not seeing anything, Danny sat beside the Goth-girl and turned his attention to the new friend at the table.

" 'Sup, Tucker?" Al said with a slight jerk up of his head.

" 'Sup, man."

"Ross, that was awesome, the way you stood up to Dash back there in the locker room!"

"What'd I'd miss? What happened?" Tucker chimed in with a look of exuberance.

"Ross here squared up, toe to toe, with the _reigning king of Casper High_. He even left him dumbfounded calling him out on a showdown!" Danny exclaimed with pride.

"No way! I hate that I missed that! Why didn't you come and find me in the locker room so I could see it!" Tucker continued.

"So how did you escape Dash's wrath, Danny?" Sam asked, confused.

"I phas– I grabbed my clothes, went through the gym, and then went all the way to the bathroom at the other end of school to change clothes. I'm not all stupid, just too tired to do all my homework."

"You have extracurricular activities? What, are you in the band? Or I bet, A/V club?" Al looked at him, while chewing his food with a grin on his face.

"Um, not really…" Danny rubbed the back of his neck, as per his nervous tic.

"Oh, well, you don't have to tell me. I mean I understand about being too tired to do anything. Sorry, I asked."

"No, it's just that, don't laugh, but my parents hunt ghosts…"

At that moment, Al looked at Danny with that same deer in headlights.

"ROSS! WHERE ARE YOU!"

Dash threw the doors to the cafeteria wide open looking for the boy who had defied him in the locker room after gym class.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Thanks for continuing to read this :) I promise I'll get to the smexiness at some point. My stories tend to write themselves, so I just have to go with the flow. R&R!**_

Dash threw the doors to the cafeteria wide open looking for the boy who had defied him in the locker room after gym class.

"Ah, hellfire!" Al groaned. "Is he always this persistent?"

"Yes!" All three of the others said at once.

"Well, shit."

Dash, Jeremiah, and Scott saw Ross and marched over to the table. "It figures you'd be hanging out with Fentonina. You're a loser just like him."

"Dash, I'm not in the mood to deal with your bullshit. All I want to do is enjoy my lunch. If you're gonna be so damned bull-headed that your ego got hurt, well, I'm sorry it's gonna have to wait til after school."

The room filled with gasps. No one had ever seen a single person stand up to Dash Baxter.

Ross stood up and looked Dash square in the eyes. Dash pushed him back, knocking him to the floor, "Nobody disrespects me."

At this, Ross reached out from his body with his hand and spoke. A greenish black stream of energy shot across the floor and hit Dash's foot causing him to falter.

"Watch it, sport, we need you in Friday's game," Scott said has he grabbed Dash, keeping him from falling.

"Are you alright?" Sam asked as she walked around the table to help the new kid get off the floor. "Dash is a bit thick when it comes to brains."

"Yeah, I noticed."

"So, Danny, have you thought about what your project with Dash is going to be for Chem?" Tucker asked as he stuffed his burger in his mouth.

"I'm thinking about doing a comparison of soil pH and the effects it has on plants. If that doesn't work for Dash, I'm going to probably suggest a simple synthesis, variations thereof, applications, and pop culture references of alum."

"That's simple, Danny. To make alum, simply take pure solid aluminum, add potassium hydroxide. The result is that the potassium hydroxide will break the pure aluminum into its cation state, allowing them to bond to the hydroxide anion. Next, add sulfuric acid, to allow the formation of potassium sulfate and aluminum (III) hydroxide. Continuing to add sulfuric acid will result in the production of aluminum (III) sulfate. Allow time for cooling, during which time, the octahedral crystal of aluminum potassium sulfate dodecahydrate will form," Al blurted out nonchalantly, while munching on his salad.

Danny, Sam, and Tucker looked at the new kid in awe, mouths agape.

"Dude! that was impressive!" exclaimed Tucker.

"Mom and Dad are scientists. Some of it had to rub off on me. Hell, I was playing with liquid nitrogen when I was 7."

Tucker got up to get back in line for more food.

"So why did your parents move to Amity Park? I mean who moves to Amity Park?" Sam asked.

Al looked at her sheepishly, almost as if he didn't want to respond. Nevertheless, he had just asked Fenton what he did after school, so doing the appropriate thing, he responded. "They investigate paranormal activity."

"Like ghosts," Danny said, with a slight hint of disappointment. That's all he need: another set of ghost hunters to add to his worry list.

"Like ghosts," Al said, with the same sort of embarrassment.

"So, who do you have for Chem?" Sam asked. _Please say Tolsoyski, if not for Danny's sake._

"Let me look," Al said as he went rummaging through the bag in the floor. He found his schedule and pulled it out of the notebook. "1st – AP History, Barlson. 2nd- English, Lancer. 3rd – Chemistry, Tolsoyski. 4th – P.E., Tetslaff. Lunch. 5th – Geometry, Taxenslov. 6th – Study hall. 7th – French, Gardenia."

"Well, I've got Chemistry with Tolsoyski 1st, and _Dash_ is my partner."

"Well, aren't you just getting out the frying pan and going into the fryer?"

"Yeah, and Dash is going over to Danny's tonight to start work on the project. So who's your partner, Al?" Tucker said after returning from getting another hamburger (making this his 3rd).

"Some stuck-up bitch named Paulina," Al said as he rolled his eyes. He looked down and noticed his salad was gone.

_BRRRIIIIIINNNNNGGGG!_

"Guess it's time for Geometry. What do you guys have?"

"Study Hall," they sounded with mixed emotions, again in unison.

"Cool, I'll catch you guys after school," Ross said as he packed up his lunch.

He hadn't lied. His parents were ghost hunters. They were secretive, reclusive. They worked for the government 14 years ago. _They left the day of his 6__th__ birthday, after his party. His father, Justin Vulicha Ross, had gotten a phone call around 2330 that night. He woke his wife, Petunia Pyron, and told her that they had a job in Wisconsin. He hadn't heard from them in the eight years he had been living by himself._

_He started to use his inherited intellect to piece together his family history, going so far as to Salem and further back into Scotland, finding himself being related to one of the women put on trial for being a witch. He became engrossed with the occult and found, in a chest that was under some old clothes in the attic, a book that belonged to his great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother, Agnus Murina. It had various spells that could cause growth, drought, rain, and other weather phenomena. One spell looked to turn the caster body into wood. The book said that a druid had taught Agnus' great-grandfather this spell to prevent bodily harm in case he was fighting a small demon. Agnus had written in the margin, "Multiple casting?"_

_He had said the spell, _cutis cortice_, and it happened. He could move, but he felt the added layer of protection. He spoke it again, and suddenly the weight of the 'armor' doubled. He looked at his arms. They were a sleek, silver color. He could still move, but he had to focus his movement under the increased pressure._

As he walked through the halls, he became slightly depressed over the memories. A shadow appeared behind him and watched him go to class. "Such a good boy."

…

The rest of the day past peacefully for Albert. He learned the bully's schedule and learned how to avoid the boy he pitied. He hated confrontation. And he always felt a little compassion for those who chose that path in life.

Danny didn't have much interaction with Al either. Aside from the times in 2nd and 4th periods and at lunch, Danny's ghost sense didn't go off. He began to think that Ross was either a full ghost that could mask his appearance, or a half-ghost, like Vlad and himself. He walked with Sam and Tucker to their lockers, which were right down the hall their 7th period, History.

"I'm telling you, guys! There's no coincidence that his parents are into the 'paranormal'. And every time I'm around him, my ghost sense goes off," Danny said as the other two were getting their stuff from their lockers.

"Well, so what if he is? If he's had his powers longer, maybe he can help you get better control over them," Sam suggested as she closed her locker and started walking with Danny, Tucker in tow behind them, toward his locker.

"So you're saying that your parents aren't the only ones who are bat-shit crazy about ghosts? And that there's another, more country version of you that has a better figure and has a better chance of being popular in his human form?" Tucker pointed out, bluntly.

Sam slowed down to elbow Tucker.

"What? It's the truth."

"Yeah, well, you don't have to be so blunt about it! You know how Danny feels about his folks and the fact that he's – ya know. Saying that they're 'bat-shit crazy' doesn't really help!" Sam whispered to Tucker.

"No, he's right. They're completely obsessed. _And_ I have a sister who's even more obsessed that they're obsessed and all she wants in the 'perfect' family. And ever since she learned my little secret, she's been even more obsessive about me _and my psyche_," Danny snarled as they reached his locker. Danny looked down the hall to see Ross at his locker. He threw up his hand as he called out to the new boy.

"Hey, Ross! Wanna go over to the Nasty Burger and hangout?" Danny called out to him.

"Sure, let me grab my gym bag and sonic," Al replied.

"Sonic?" Danny turned and looked to Tucker for an answer to all things geek.

"He's a Whovian," Sam and Tucker both responded.

"A what-ian?"

"I love Dr. Who. It's a British TV sci-fi show," answered for the other two as he joined the group.

Just then, the blue wisp escaped from Danny's mouth for like the 4th time today. _Where is that ghost_, Danny thought as he searched around the hallway.

"Dude, are you ok? You keep on looking around the school during the day that's the second time today I've see those eyes of yours go all 'deer caught in headlights'," Al asked as he played with his sonic.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Danny said as he tried to calm his nerves. "I guess my parents' obsession with ghosts is kicking into high gear with me."


	4. Chapter 4

They walked out of the school together and saw Dash, Jeremiah, and Scott all there waiting there for Al.

"Can I just say that I'm sorry that you're his new target, Ross, but I'm glad I get some relief," Danny said, trying not to be a jerk about the situation.

"It's alright, man. I'm about to teach this loser a valuable lesson," Ross was rather perturbed at the situation. He hadn't even gone twenty-fours at the new school, and already the reigning bully was after him. He had had enough. He walked down the steps to the yard of the school, putting distance between him and everyone else. Having family that was part of the Witch Trials had made him caution of people and their reactions to magic, especially the dark arts. "_cutis adamas_," whispered the boy, causing the boy's right arm to shine ever so slightly, his green eyes were now turning black. When he whispered the spell, Danny's ghost sense went off. "He's a ghost?!" Danny silently yelled to Tucker and Sam.

"Will wonders never cease?!" Sam said amusingly.

"So Dashy-boy, do you want to play? I know you probably got football practice here shortly, but how 'bout a rousing little wrestling match before you go to loosen up those muscles?" Al yelled as he walked to the blonde.

"Fine with me, Ross!"

Danny was about to go ghost as he saw Al's right fist collide with Dash's face. The blow knocked the boy down to the ground, grabbing his now bloodied jaw.

"_Leporum transuerso_. Had enough, Dashy-boy?" Al asked with anger permeating his typical tenor voice, causing it to go baritone. "Because I could go all day. Now, here's an idea that I suggest you listen to: Leave me, Danny, and all the other nerds alone. Because if you don't," Al grabbed Dash by the collar of his letterman jacket, forcing the blonde to look into his now black eyes, "I'm not going to go easy on you. Understand?"

"Uh-huh," Dash squeaked.

…

After the fight (if you could call the two-hit wonder a _fight_), Al had disappeared, standing Danny, Sam, and Tucker at the Nasty Burger.

He had rushed to the new condo that he had bought with the money from the sale of his previous residence. His parents were rich. They both came from old money, and they had decided to use that money for paranormal studies. Psychics, ghosts, demons, angels, ghouls, even the occasional romp to find Big Foot, were all on their agenda. They had done their own study into their ancestry, and noted that Justin was the actual descendent of the Witch Trials. Petunia was shocked that her husband had the potential to use magic. They were both against the idea, especially when they found out she was pregnant with a boy. They wanted him to grow up in a "normal" household. They barricaded the lab, soundproofed the flooring, even installed secret levers that opened secret passageways, anything that would prevent a child from wondering in a dangerous place.

He never sold that house. It was his true home, the home that he was going to go back to once he found his parents. At first, he simply lied to most of the teachers at school about his parents. When parent teacher conferences would came around, he'd ask his neighbor, the now late Ms. Stella Gavia, to pose as his mother. She would tell the teachers the truth, her husband had dies several years ago. The lie was that she raised Albert Ross Gavia as a single mother.

When he got older, around 4th and 5th grades, he had learned from the book how to implant false memories into people. He never used this power on anyone but teachers about his parents. Typically, the memory would be of Ms. Gavia, being there with him and the teacher had gone over whatever it was that they wanted to go over with "her". Now, being a freshman in high school, he simply avoided being in trouble all together. Most likely because he had become emancipated. So there was no need to implant false memories when you were accountable for your own actions in the eyes of the court.

He had learned a more intensive spell that allowed him to connect two places that were on the same plane of existence. He had used this spell to connect his parents' lab with a wall in whatever living situation he had used. It was an exhaustive spell and required time, focus, and a copious amount of energy, but it had become easier since Al had used it multiple times. Deconstructing the portal was a bit more complex, because he would have to do it from his home instead of where he was living at the time.

…

That night, Dash was sore from the beating he had taken from the new kid. _Damn it, he caught me by surprise! I can't believe I fell after one hit. This is embarrassing! Now I've got to go over to Fenton's with a black eye. Wonder if he'll make fun of me. I can't just beat the living shit out of him now. Now, since that new kid is protecting him. Why him specifically? What makes Fenton so damn special that the new kid wants to protect him? UGH! I HATE FEN-TOAD!_

But the problem, Dash was feeling a little light headed, even walking to FentonWorks.

…

It was almost 2100. Phantom was out making rounds, as was normal now that he had grown accustom to the powers and the responsibility. There wasn't a ghost that posed a threat in the town tonight, which made Phantom one happy little halfa. He was on his way home passing the clock tower over city hall when the next he knew, he heard someone yelling.

"Adamas imbre!"

The voice was deep. A bass voice that resonated with power. It sounded like it belong to an older man, but Danny wasn't sure, it sounded vaguely familiar to him.

Phantom noticed five shards of what he thought were glass as they whizzed by him, two of the grazing him, one on the arm and one on the face.

"Hey! Watch where you're throwing things, Dude!" Phantom yelled, as he stopped to see from whence the shards had originated.

"I am, ghost! Too bad all five of my diamond shards didn't hit you!" yelled a figure cloaked in the darkness of an alley.

"Come out and show yourself!"

"Now, why would I do that?! I'm not an idiot. The problem with ghosts is that you expect every hunter to face you out in the open while you can go invisible and intangible, creating a disadvantage to the fight for those of us humans who fight you! If you want to fight me, come find me!" yelled the voice.

With the challenge, Danny turned his feet into the wisp of a tail and flew down into the alleyway. There were no signs of life, as Phantom floated there.

"I know you're here, so why don't you come on out?"

"Out from where, boy? I'm not the one in hiding," spoke the ominous voice.

"Look, I don't have time for your games. Just tell how you plan on taking over the world, so I can stop you and be the hero that everyone likes."

"I don't want to take over the world. I want my son back. I was taken from him and I want to find him. I've sensed his presence around here and I just want to see him."

"Well, maybe we should _shed some light on the subject!_" Danny exclaimed as he formed an ecto-energy ball.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing was in the alleyway. "Ok, that's going under weird and creepy, but I've got to get home. _Dash_ is there and I know it can't be good."

…

Danny got to his room's window just about the same time that Dash was going to up the stoop to the door.

_Ding-Dong_, rang the bell. _Welcome to FentonWorks, I'm Jack Fenton_.

Jazz opened the door. She sighed with a slight growl. "DANNY! Dash is here! Come on in, Dash."

"Thanks, _Jazz_."

"How did you get that black eye? Would you like some ice for that?"

"Football practice, wasn't wearing my helmet and ran into one of the guys." _Like HELL I'm going to tell her that some newbie wailed on me!_ He said and thought as she walked him to the kitchen to grab an ice pack.

"Well, it's a good looking shiner. Here's some ice for it. Would you like anything to eat, Danny went out for a minute, but we've plenty of food for him and you to grab a bite," Jazz offered an excuse for Danny's tardiness from Phantom Patrol, even if she wasn't particularly fond of Dash, she still wanted to be nice to him for Danny's sake.

"Thanks. Um, I'll just get a chicken breast, some mashed potatoes, and some green beans," Dash responded with the same forced pleasantness he was receiving.

"So, Danny tells me you failed your Chemistry test and that you two are partners for the group project. Did you even pay attention to the words I was speaking or just that I was in the room? Nevermind, don't answer that. I think it's just wonderful what Mr. Tolsoyski is doing pairing nontraditional partners together. Ya know, you can learn a lot about each other. Who knows, maybe you two have something in common, and you'll actually grow out of this bullying phase."


	5. Chapter 5

**_This one's a bit shorter than the rest of them but it's a completely OC free chapter. I figured that 4 chapters of dealing with the new kid was enough. ON TOWARDS THE HEART OF THE STORY! Sorry, I tend to get a little overzealous... as to the reviews: *bows* thanks! I'm a total Whovian and the OC had to be too. Can't wait for the new Dr. also, dk if there's going to be any Who-nanigans, but like i say: these stories tend to write themselves, so you never know... I might have a plasmavore in here somewhere..._**

Danny came down from his room on the second floor. He stopped by the bathroom to see if that cut from the diamond shard was still on his face. It was. He thought it strange since most of his injuries from his fights stay in the ghost form. Whoever was throwing shards of diamonds at him knew what was going on. They knew how to fight ghosts properly. And that voice. It sounded as though it was experienced. Although the disdain was there, it wasn't as loathsome as his parents' or Vlad's, so he quickly eliminated them as the prime suspects. Anyway, this would all have to be pushed to the back burner because Dash was in his kitchen at his table, probably flirting with his sister, while he waited for the halfa. _I really hate our chemistry teacher_, Danny thought as he hit the staircase.

"I'm coming, Jazz!"

"So, what are your big plans for the chemistry project, Dash?" Jazz asked simply, probably as an analytic measurement of just how important schoolwork was to the jockhead.

"I don't know, probably a volcano."

"Typical."

"Hey, Jazz, _Dash_," Danny said as his eyes turned green for a moment, but not from envy.

"Nothing much, just quizzing the quarterback on what _his_ thoughts are for the project's topic. The resounding answer: Volcano."

"Well, it's always worked before, why wouldn't it work now?"

"It's so 2nd grade, Dash. We gotta come up with something big with enough razzle-dazzle to bring both our grades up. And you know we have to do an equal amount of work, because Tolsoyski wants the project details written by hand and turned before we actually do the project. Then, when we do the project, we videotape the presentation and have to share the information we collected. It's the only way we're going to pass the project, and maybe even the class," Danny pleaded with the blonde bully.

"So what do you have in mind, Fen-tur-ton?"

Jazz looked upon her younger brother, smiling. She was proud about the realization of effort that had to be put into the project, and she knew that if she stayed much longer things weren't going to be done. Danny and Dash both would yell at her for space. She looked at the two boys and saw that they were actually two sides of the same coin. That if given the chance, they could like each other. Well, that would be until Dash found out that he was Phantom, and how that was going even she couldn't psychoanalyze.

"I'll leave you boys alone to work on the details of the project. If you need any help, remember I had Tolsoyski for Chemistry, too, so don't be afraid to ask," Jazz offered as she exited the room.

"I was thinking on finding out how your mother gets the variation in color of her hydrangea," Danny said somewhat reluctantly, knowing how it would sound to the other, more masculine boy.

"So what does it matter how she does it? Are you queer or something and planning to start a flower garden? _Fenton, Fenton, quite contrary, how does _your _garden grow?_" Dash poked fun, adding a loud snicker at the end.

"No, actually, Sam was curious," Danny replied hastily, blushing.

"Doesn't her mom do that for a living, though?"

"Shut up!"

"You never answered my question: why do you want to know?"

"I…uh…I think they're pretty and was just curious how the variation appeared," Danny stumbled through the reply.

"Uh-huh."

"You got any other ideas, Fen-turd? Cause there's no way Dash Baxter is going to do a presentation on _hydrangea_." Dash wouldn't admit it to the puny kid, but he was curious about how she got the variations in the colors as well. She had the greenest thumb of most of the mothers he had met. She could even get a _Rosa persica_ to grow in little ol' Amity Park.

"We could do a presentation on cartoon chemicals."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, there's an episode of Looney Toons were Sylvester the Cat is chasing Tweetie Bird and Tweetie feeds him a bottle of alum. What is alum? What does it do?"

"Seems legit."

The boys started working on what they did know about alum, which wasn't much. So, they went up to Danny's room to use his computer.

"Sheesh, Fenton, you could pick your room every now and then."

"Sorry, my parents have me help out with some of their inventions and that can occupy hours of my time. Why do you think I've got D's in most of all of my classes."

"So get Jazz to help you?!"

"Really, Dash? Do you think I'm going to up to my sister and say, 'oh wonderful, older sister, dearest? Do you think you could find it in your spare time when you're not psychologically evaluating every minute detail of every person you come in contact with just to help me with my homework?' Yeah, right!"

"Dude, that was harsh! Even for me. You don't hate her or anything, do you?"

"Nah, it's just that she acts as though she thirty. She forgets that she's just two years older than me. And it's true, every little movement that my folks make, she analyzes. It gets old really quick."

…

Time flew by. It was midnight before either teen had noticed. Dash was insistent that he was going home to go to bed.

"Nonsense!" Maddie said, as she swatted her hand in the air. "You can just spend the night here in Danny's room."

"Oh, no! I'm not–"

_CLAP! BOOOM! Drizzle…_

"I guess I am."

"Jack, honey, fetch the boy something to sleep in. Danny, don't you have a spare quilt that Grandma Fenton made you?"

"Fenton, I'm warning you. If you try _any_thing, you're gonna live to regret it."

"Here, sweetie. Here's a pillow, the quilt should be in the closet over there, and here's some spare pajama shorts of Danny's. Jack, do you know where we put that air mattress?"

"Air mattress, air mattress, nope!"

"Well, I guess you boys are gonna have to share the bed tonight. Danny, sweetie is that alright with you?"

"I guess it's going to have to be, mother," Danny said through gritted teeth.

"It's really all right, Mrs. Fenton. I can just–" Dash tried to say as sweet as he could to Fentonina's mother.

"Nonsense, are your folks still up?"

"They should be…"

"Well, how 'bout we give them a buzz and tell them that you're going to be spending the night here. It looks like it's going to be raining cats and dogs all night long."

"But–"

"No buts young man," Maddie said sternly with a smile on her face.

"Yes, ma'am," Dash said as he felt Mrs. Fenton push him down the stairs.

Danny whipped out his cell phone and press 2.

"What? I'm working on my half of the report! Besides it's midnight, shouldn't you be asleep?" Sam was slightly annoyed.

"Dash is spending the night! What do I do?!"


	6. Chapter 6

_**Thanks to all the readers! Tell me what you think? Should I keep going with this one? Um... IDK if i should raise the rating on this cause of this chapter... I don't really think so, cause i mean there's mention of stuff that could be construed as self-harm, but at the same time the context of the story could also lend itself to abuse... so i mean, it's at T for pete's sake... just uh, let me know what you think... Also, sorry about the awkward and very abrupt chapter endings... like i said, these things tend to write themselves so where i stop is where i stop for that period of writing...**_

Downstairs: ?

"Hey, Dad, I'm gonna spend the night here at Danny Fenton's house," Dash said rather slowly to the receiver.

"Why, you too much of a wuss to tough it out in the rain? Or are you _scared_ of a little thunder and lightning? Fenton… isn't that the name of the kid you're always talkin about?"

"Dad, are you drunk again?" Dash asked in a low tone so that Maddie wouldn't hear the question.

"No, I am not," replied his father, abruptly.

"Dad, it's only Monday night…"

"I AM NOT DRUNK, DASHIEL BAXTER."

"Ok, ok…"

"Did I hear something about being drunk, Dash?" Maddie asked the boy. "Well that solves it; you are definitely spending the night here. Let me have the phone, Dash. Mr. Baxter, this is Maddie Fenton, our boys are doing a science project together and they were so engrossed in the project that time simply passed too quickly. I'll be sure to drop Dash off at school tomorrow with Danny," Maddie said in her polite tone of voice. "Have a good night."

_CLICK._

"Dash, sweetie, you're always welcome here when your father gets like this. Does he get like this often?"

"When he gets paid," Dash said, looking down and to the left, avoiding eye contact with Maddie.

"So he got paid today."

"yeah…" Dash whispered.

"Well, like I said, you'll have a room here. We've a spare bedroom, but it's more of a junk room right now. I'll get Jack to clean it out this week."

"Thanks, Mrs. F," Dash said, scratching his neck below his left ear. It wasn't a true mimic of Fenton's but a somewhat similar nervous habit. No one knew his dad drank, and now that it was out, he was sort of embarrassed about it.

…

Upstairs:

"Um, exactly that: Mom all but made the decision for him. Then it started to rain and he caved. Hell, they even gave him one of my pajama pants to sleep in. Mom's going so far as to wash his clothes! Sam, what do I do!?" Danny was so confused at what was happening. First, the new kid turns out to be–at the least–part ghost. Second, that weird figure that attacked him on the way home, which he still had to tell Sam and Tucker about, but that would have to wait because he had to deal the most pressing matter of Dash spending the night, _in his bed_! He'd sooner be one of Skulker's pets than to tell Sam this. He knew she was still steaming about that note from earlier.

This day had gone to Hell in a hand-basket from the word "Go". Hopefully, things could be sorted out and his dad could find the air mattress before he had to share the same bed as Dash Baxter.

"Well, it's not like you have to actually share a bed with the jock."

"Yeah…" Danny said with a little nervousness slipping out in his voice.

"So, what did you finally decide on as a project?" Sam asked, noting the nervousness and changing the subject.

"The alum. I made the stupid mistake of making a comment about his mom's hydrangeas and then he asked me if I was queer cause I was curious how she got the color variation. Can't a guy like flowers?"

"They can, just don't pick hydrangeas as your favorite. Go with snapdragons or something, or people will get that idea about you…" Sam said, kinda babbling to fill in the space of her brain.

"It's not that I liked them. I just was curious how she got the different colors! I mean pink, red, light blue, and blue are very different colors, Sam. I just wanted to know how she did it," Danny said defensively.

"It was your other idea. Change the pH in the soil and, especially in hydrangeas, you can vary the color of the petals. If you're good enough, you can start in one pH, and then change it until half the petal is the other color. Those are really pretty," Sam informed Danny.

"_Danny! Would you come down here for a minute?!"_ Maddie yelled from the downstaits.

"Gotta go, mom's calling me," Danny said in a rush. "I'll let you know how things go if I'm at school tomorrow."

"Later."

"Coming, Mom!"

…

Downstairs, Maddie had Dash on the couch, waiting for Danny to tell him what was going to happen in the foreseeable future.

"Yeah, mom?" Danny asked as he took notice of Dash's depressed facial features. _What's wrong with Dash?_

"Honey, Dash's father said it was ok for him spend the night any time he wanted," Maddie halfway lied. "Also, this weekend you and Jack are going to clean out the spare bedroom for when Dash wants to spend the night."

"But MOM–"

"No buts mister. Dash here has problems outside of school and if he wants to spend the night, he can. Understand?" Maddie asked Danny.

"Ok, mom…" Danny pouted.

"Now, off you boys go to bed. You've got school in the morning."

Dash took lead up the steps to the second level of the house. He didn't want Fenton to see the tears that were falling from his face. His dad's drinking had cost him his mother's joy. And he was pretty sure that anymore drinking would cost him his mother. He had overheard her and him arguing after he was supposed to be in bed for several years now. Hearing the word 'divorce' several times during his middle school years scared him more than anything in the world. He loved his mother and his father; but not what the drinking was doing to the family.

Danny, on the other hand, was actually concerned about why his mother said that Dash's father was going to let him spend the night whenever he wanted. _Surely, his upper class parents wouldn't let him stay here based on their position in the community. He knew that his parents were a bit extreme in their obsession with all things ecto-related, and that tended to alienate most of the other parents of the community. So, why upper class parents would let their son spend the night whenever he wanted with such (deemed) outcasted 'freaks'?_ Danny was at a loss. He decided that this was a matter for another day since it was now 0100 and his parents would undoubtedly blow something up at 0600 or 0700.

…

"Jack, sweetie I'll make you a batch of cookies if you and Danny clean out that guest bedroom down the hall this weekend," Maddie bargained with her husband.

"For your cookies, Maddie, I would do anything you asked," Jack spoke honestly as they got in bed.

…

Dash got in the bed after Danny had finished in the bathroom and was in his room. He turned on his right side to face the closet of the boy's room, while Danny laid on his left side, facing the door. "Good night, Dash."

"Night, Fenton," Dash said curtly. "Oh, and thanks for letting me spend the night. But if you tell anybody about this or my parents, I'll wail on you like there's no tomorrow."

"Understood."

…

…

…

The next day, Tuesday.

Tuesday, named for the Norse god of heroic victory, Týw. A dreaded day, since Dash was in Danny's bed. Hopefully, this day would go a bit smoother than yesterday. Maybe Dash wouldn't be such a jerk. Danny woke up at 0630. He phased through the sheets so he wouldn't bother Dash. Speaking of Dash, he turned around and looked at the larger boy. What he saw grabbed his attention: bruises lined his back and chest, with several scars around his biceps, a faded line could be seen around his neck underneath his chin, he mumbled a "no" in his sleep. _He's more of a victim than I am. He's not out to really hurt people, he's just letting his frustration out on us…_ _But why me the most?_

Danny stopped thinking as he saw the boy roll over. _I'll just float to the bathroom, I know my folks are downstairs, but I'll be invisible just in case. _He honestly didn't want to wake the other boy just yet. He phased through the bathroom door, did his business. and brushed his teeth. He became tangible again, walked out of the bathroom, and down the stairs to see his mother fixing breakfast.

"How does biscuits and gravy sound, Danny?"

"Sounds good to me," Danny replied with a refreshingly chipper voice.

"And what has you in such a good mood today, sweetie?"

"Well, Dash actually helped with our project last night, which is surprising, because I didn't think he could do some of the work," Danny said as he sat at the table.

"You know, you gotta give some people a chance to prove themselves to you before you can judge them. Just like people judge you because we spend all our time in ghost fighting doesn't mean that you're the loser that kids call you."

"How did you– _Jazz_."

"No, Jazz didn't tell us anything. Do you really think that of all the kids at school, we've only met Sam and Tucker? I mean, I sensed that even Dash didn't wanna stay with you last night, but hopefully he got a good rest."

"Oh he did," Danny retorted. "He could probably sleep through an earthquake, tornado, and a flood. Either that or we could use all the lumber he was sawing to board the house up."

"Does he snore as bad as your father?" Maddie asked with a slight interest.

"I'd bet that they could have a snoring contest and it'd be a tie."

"Well, breakfast is ready. Could you go fetch Dash while I go fetch your father from the lab?"

"Sure thing, Mom," Danny said as he got up from the table


	7. Chapter 7

_**thanks so much for all the reading this story has gotten! It's really good to know that you guys are enjoying this as much as I am... As for last chapter: Idk if i'm going to explain what's going on a Dash's house.. I feel like I should at least attempt to do it a little justice since I introduced the sensitive subject, but at the same time, if the story doesn't write it, i probably won't write about it... Either way, thanks again for all the attention the story's getting. This chapter has some more technical terminology, but it's nothing you couldn't find on google if you truly wanted to look it up... Also! Idk where in season one this story is taking place, but I do know that it's in Season One, possibly as a tag to Million Dollar Ghost, before the introduction of Freakshow... But enough! ON WITH THE STORY!**_

Danny walked up the stairs to his bedroom and saw that Dash was already out of the bed. "Dash, where are you?"

"Jeez, Fenton, can't a guy use the bathroom in peace," Dash said on the harsher side of his voice, but still wasn't as nasty as he was at school. "You got a toothbrush I can use?"

"Just use mine; it's the one with the spaceship on it."

"Thanks."

"Oh, and by the way, Mom has breakfast ready for us downstairs. So, when you're done…" Danny trailed the last of the statement off, since it was implied that he was invited to the Fenton family breakfast.

"What did your mom do with my clothes?"

"They're downstairs as well in the laundry room, hanging up. Just go down the stairs and make a right. You should see them hanging on the rack," Danny offered the information as he left the other boy to brush his teeth. He did notice that he had this slight nervousness about him, but he chocked that up to Dash being in his house, having to spend the night and the weird things that were happing around town last night.

Dash finished up in the bathroom and went downstairs to fetch his clothing. He looked at the clock in the hall as he passed it, and saw that it read 0730. _Ok, an hour before school starts._

_Grruuummmbbbbllle_, his stomach moaned.

Dash was ready and at the table within a few minutes of getting his clothing. He sat beside Jazz with Danny on the other side of him. Maddie and Jack were beside Jazz and Danny respectively. _Everything's normal. They're ghost-hunting lunatics and they actually sit down to a normal breakfast. It must be nice. Danny gets so embarrassed when they're at school, but here in this setting, they're just so _normal_. Maybe my folks have them all wrong,_ Dash thought as he was eating the breakfast. _Biscuits and gravy, eggs, bacon, ham, a conversation about some new ecto-weapon that his dad is talking about, Jazz being too critical of him–these all seem like normal things here._

"Dad! Not while Dash is here!" Jazz screamed.

"I'm sorry, Jazzie, but I wanted to show your mom here how the new Fenton Blade looked. It's lined with ghost energy to pierce the ghost's nonmaterial body."

Dash looked at the family and started to feel a bit jealous.

"Hey, Dash, you've, hehe, barely touched your plate. You not hungry or something?" Danny said to the blonde, trying to reel him back into reality.

"Oh, hehe, guess not. But I got football practice tonight, so I guess I better eat anyway," Dash said trying to be nice to the boy in front of his parents.

"Alright, kids, it's 0800! We all ready for school?" Maddie called out from the living room...

"Are you taking us?!" Danny said, looking halfway mortified.

"Of course, silly. I promised Mr. Baxter that I would, so I'm keeping my word."

"Oh, great. Just great," Dash and Danny had the same thought and spoke the same words at the same time.

"Uh, Mom, you think you could drop us off a couple blocks away from the school?" Danny inquired of his mother.

"I don't know why, Danny, honey," Maddie started, "but ok…"

Dash looked at Danny and glared softly. He knew that the boy was trying to save his reputation, but he still had this urge to say something mean. _I can't bully him today. That Ross kid has his eye on Fenton for some reason and I'm gonna find out just what is that reason._

…

…

School yard:

"Hey, Danny, I see you survived the night," Sam said with a smirk on her face.

"Yeah, well, I also had to survive this morning, too," Danny spoke back with a slight drain in his voice.

"Did he find out?" Tucker chimed in on cue.

"No, I didn't use any of my powers on him last night."

"Good boy, Danny," Sam said as if she were talking to a dog, patting him on the head.

"So, guys, we gotta talk about the new kid. I think he's at least part ghost, if not full. That and something weird happened while I was on patrol last night."

"Ok, explain," Sam said as she and tucker looked to him with interest.

"Last night, while I was on patrol, this creep threw five shards of diamonds at me from an alley. Three of them missed but two grazed me," Danny explained as he showed them the cuts on his face and arm. "I was still in ghost form when these happen. You guys have seen me in battle, when I get hurt in my ghost form and revert back, the injuries tend to go away; they typically just leave a really nasty bruise."

"Yeah, that is weird," Tucker stated, interrupting Danny.

"But that's not the weirdest part. Just before they were thrown, this deep voice spoke like a spell or something. It was in some foreign language."

"Was it in Esperanto?" Tucker question.

"I don't think so, Tuck. When I flew down into the alley to see if that person was there, all I heard was his voice, like some kind of ventriloquist. He said he wasn't bent on world domination, just that he just wanted to see his son from whom he was taken."

_BBRRIIIINNGGG!_

"Well, that's the bell for first period," Sam stated flatly.

"Time for my daily class with Dash," Danny said, slightly happy this morning.

"Later, man," Tucker said, in his lax manner.

…

Danny walked into the building and just sighed. After last night, he was sorta was looking forward to seeing Dash. He couldn't understand what was going on, but nevertheless, he was happy about going to school. He walked to his locker, opened it, and pulled out his chemistry book and notebook. Al walked by on his way to his locker, scaring Danny as he said, "Hey, Danny! What's up?"

Danny nearly jumped out of his skin and slammed his locker door shut. "Ross, man, don't do that to me!"

"Sorry, I yelled at you down the hall, guessin you must not have heard me. You know you got a nasty lookin cut on your face, right? You get in to a knife fight with somebody, or somethin'?"

"Or something…"

Al caught the tone of "I don't want to talk about it" the statement was laced with, and decided to move on to the next topic: the chemistry reports.

"So I met that Paulina girl last night at the library. She's pretty, but I think that's all that's there. I mean I asked her what she wanted to do for our project in 3rd period. She looked at me with this glazed look in her eyes like, 'I don't care what you do as long as I get an A…' and she just left to go hang out with some blonde chick," Al said has he opened his locker to access his book for AP History. Al hated that class. There was only one reason that he was actually any good at the class: his mother had a study full of books on different topics, all somehow relating to a supernatural explanation of the events of the thesis. He enjoyed reading the books as he did enjoy reading, but history class was sooo boring to him. "So, what did you and Dash finally decide on as a chemistry project?"

"Um, I kinda took your idea of the alum and ran with it. Dash wasn't too thrilled about changing the color of hydrangeas."

"Yeah, well…" Al said, slightly rolling his eyes at the thought going on in his head.

_BBBBRRRRIIIIINNNNGGGGG!_

"There's the bell," Al stated. "I'll catch you in gym to see how this goes," Al joked as he stuck out his tongue to the halfa.

As Danny went into Room 147, he noticed that today, when he saw Al, his ghost sense didn't reveal itself. He couldn't figure it out since yesterday, that's all it did around the new boy.

"Better late than never, Fenton," Dash smirked slightly as he saw the 'loser' walk through the door.

"Alright, class, today: We switch seats," Mr. Tolsoyski said in a thick Russian accent, complete with hand motions suggesting something being mixed up.

"AWWW!" the whole class groaned.

Mr. Tolsoyski had been there for three years, this one being his fourth. He rather enjoyed the students but their unwillingness to work with new people was unnerving. Therefore, he took matters in his own hands the second year, starting with Jazz's class.

"From today until projects due, you sit with partner. I know, I know, you not be caught dead around them out of class, but in class, for next three days, you sit with them."

"What?!"

"You mean to tell me I gotta sit with Fen-Turd for the rest of the week?!" Dash yelled. And with that Danny's mood went for chipper to sour in an instant.

"Yeah, well, you're not who I wanna spend time with during class, either, Dash," Danny said under his breath, rather hurt. _Wait, since when do I care about what Dash says about me? Why is he so different today than he was last night, the ungrateful moron…?_ This began a new thought process that filled the rest of the class period.

Tolsoyski talked about something relating to alkali earth metals and their importance in the universe. He mentioned that calcium and magnesium were both vital components of certain processes in the body. He asked some of the girls if they liked emeralds, stating that beryllium bonded with aluminium silicate. He mentioned that chromium (and occasionally vanadium) gave it the green color that is so highly valued by women and jewelers. He then moved on to applications of the elements in the group and their more common states. He mentioned that calcium was bonded with tungstate is what the overhead florescent light used. When bonded with permanganate, calcium was used at the dental office to clean teeth. He made mention, also, that hypoxylapatite was about 50% of a bone's weight.

All in all, Tolsoyski noticed that the class was very unhappy about the new seating arrangements. He wanted to help the students learn to get along with other students so that when they enter the business world they would learn how to deal with people that they don't particularly like. However, this class looked positively miserable.

"Alright, class. Why do you look miserable?"

Dash raised his hand and asked, "Why do we have to work with people we don't like?! I mean _everybody_ knows that I don't like Fenton and I wail on him constantly!"

Danny looked at Dash and his eyes flashed green. Sam and Tucker glared across the room to Danny and Sam shook her head. Danny glared at her for a moment, blinked, and his eyes were back to that baby blue color. He actually felt hurt by the statement.

"To teach you. Dash, I know that you could pair up with some jock on team and bully some nerd into doing report for you to get perfect score, but I want you to do actual work. This is also exercise to teach you to work with someone you not like."

"But why Fen-ton?"

"Because you two seem to have personal issues that need to be worked out. Sam, I paired you with Star because you need to learn that even though people are popular, they are not always mean. Tucker, I paired you with Kwan because I believe that you could learn something from him. Ashley, I paired you with Nathan to see how you would react with someone who is not of your social class. Please open your minds to the possibilities that are presented before as a learning opportunity, not as a punitive measure," Tolsoyski informed his students. He truly believed that they could each learn from the other, but only if they would let them see each other as humans that could contribute to the project, not as a stereotype of a clique in school.

"Now, for tomorrow, I'd like you all to bring in your research topic, and present it to me. If you have any research already done, then I'd like to see that as well," Tolsoyski finished before the bell rang, dismissing the class.


	8. Chapter 8

**_Short chapter, but a good one I think... I pull my OC back into this and give you the first glance as to why I titled the story, "Birds of Prey". Tell me what you think of Albert Ross (and no spoiling for the other readers, please)... thanks for the followers, I'm glad y'all like the story. ENJOY! P.S. I don't own Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, but it comes out next week and it looks AMAZING... Plus I know the guys have Technus dropped in Level 0 of_ _Doom, so I figured I'd give them a new game to look forward to playing :)  
_**

4th period, Gym:

"HEY ROSS!"

"What's up, man? Al, did you get those notes on Shakespeare Lancer put on the board today in 2nd? I dozed off and only got like the first few notes," Danny asked the new kid.

"Sure, man. I got most of them, Trina's gonna let me borrow that last page that I didn't get before the bell rang," replied Al as he was putting on his tennis shoes for the upcoming period's probable game of dodgeball.

"So you ready for dodgeball? You know that's what Tetslaff is going to pick," Tucker chimed in, fully dressed and waiting on the other two boys.

"Ross, are you any good at that game?" Danny inquired.

"Eh, I'm fair. You know how schools are: dodgeball is like the ultimate choice of teachers for jocks to pick on us 'losers'," Al replied.

"It's like the teachers side with them more than us," Tucker said.

"Yeah, well. I wonder how Dash's face is doing," Al postulated outloud.

"Oh, he turned up at my house with a really good shiner," Danny retorted.

"How? I socked him one in the jaw. He was bleeding on contact," Al explained.

"Well, when he got to my house his was blackened and his jaw did have a nasty bruise, so maybe you hit harder than you thought."

"Whatever, I don't really care. As long as he learned his lesson about picking on people, I truly don't give two katydi's," Al said as he patted Danny on the back.

Tucker looked at Al with a strange look but brushed it off as the trio of boys entered into the gym. As he had predicted, Tucker saw dodgeballs lined up on the half-court line of the basketball-line gym floor.

"Well, good luck guys," Danny offered to the boys.

…

…

…

After class:

"Man, that was awesome, Ross!" Tucker exclaimed as he followed Al into the locker room. "I can't believe you're _that_ good at the game. You even caught several of the jocks' throws! Have you considered trying out for the football team?"

"Thanks, Tucker," Al said with slight embarrassment. "I've had to learn how to keep up with bullies, so I guess I just learned how to dodge balls like I'm dodging punches. I thought about it, but I'm never at a high school long enough to tryout. _My parents move a lot, and I have to go with them_," Al said, using a bit of magic over the boy to influence him.

Danny's ghost sense went off. "Uh, Tuck, can I talk to you. Alone. Over there," Danny said abruptly to Tucker.

Al wondered why the two boys were going off into the corner to whisper something. His paranoia set in rapidly. _Can he detect magic?! I mean, it wasn't even a large amount of the dark arts. And I've been careful not to reveal it, almost fully suppressing the aura._

Danny took Tucker into a corner, his back to the wall, facing Al, watching the new kid change clothes. "My ghost sense just went off."

"Why? Who's here?"

"Al."

"No way! Al's not a ghost. I mean, I haven't seen him to your intangible or invisible act yet. And, dude, he seems pretty chill for a ghost. Most of the ghosts we deal with have this bad juju vibe coming from them, ya know: take over the world, capture you, grant wishes that turn out horribly wrong, cause destruction and mayhem. I ain't getting that from him," Tucker protested.

"Tuck, I'm serious. Something's up with Al. His parents are into the whole 'paranormal activity' thing. He seems to be cool with my parents' crazy obsession of ghost," Danny rebutted.

"So…" Tucker said indifferently, "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Doesn't seem odd that since Vlad put that $1,000,000 price on Phantom's head, another child of ghost-hunting parents arrives at school?"

"Well, all I know is that when he spoke that last sentence, my ghost sense went off."

"Calm down, dude. I don't think that Ross knows you're Phantom or that he's even heard of Invis-o-Bill, aka Danny Phantom."

"Well, let's hope not," Danny said as he was going back to get dressed and go to lunch.

"So, what was that all about?" Ross inquired.

"Oh, uh, well, ya see…"

"Danny wanted to know if would go on a date with Sam," Tucker said loudly as Danny hee-hawed around the answer.

"Whatever. Time for lunch," Al replied with touch of distrust.

…

…

…

Lunch went fairly quiet for the, now, foursome. Al told Sam that Danny had asked Tucker to go on a date with her and she wasn't exactly thrilled with the halfa. In fact, she sat there in total silence until the bell rang. The guys were talking about a new _Final Fantasy_ game that was coming out later in the month, and how they were excited about that. Al had a nagging feeling that Dash was going to come up behind him and give him a wailing for yesterday, so he asked the group if they could sit by the wall furthest away from the doors to the cafeteria.

Al was in Geometry, not really paying attention. He had animated a pen that was reactive to the teacher's voice to take notes so he could have the notes and not focus in class. No one noticed that he truly wasn't writing the notes, and that his mind was wondering. He had the notion that Danny and Tucker _were_ in fact lying to him. Maybe he should ask them about all the spectral activity that was happening in town. Maybe then he could have another clue as to the location of his mother and father.

Suddenly, Al's pen lost its animation. It meant one of two things were happening: he either had lost total control of his focus and charm on the object or there was something interfering with his magic.

"Mr. Taxenslov, may I be excused," Al said as he raised his hand.

"Certainly," the teacher responded.

…

…

…

Al stepped outside of the classroom and decided to go to the bathroom. He needed a discreet place to figure out what was happening. He walked down the hall to the bathroom and saw Danny rushing into the boys' restroom. Al picked up his pace, to see what was causing Danny to run at such a pace with his eyes big as a deer's.

Al opened the door, he saw a flash of white light from one of the stalls. He decided it was best to close the door without entering and step aside. _"Tegendo sphaera,"_ Al whispered, disappearing from sight. As he disappeared, he saw a ghost kid fly out of the restroom and down the hall. _Fenton?!_ Al thought. _Was this the spectral energy his parent's lab had picked up?_ _ Well this definitely could be a secret worth knowing. Better see what this ghost kid is doing._

"_Leporum transuerso,"_ Al muttered, becoming visible again. "_Uariat speciem. Diomedea epomophora_!" Al said, the Latin resonating in the hallway. With the statement a black shroud engulf the boy. When the shroud lifted, he had grown a set of wide, white wings with black streaks that started about a foot from the tips of the feathers, a short, whip-like tail with a point to it, and each of his fingers now had pointed nails to them. _Where's that ghost kid?_ Al thought as he flew of in the direction of Phantom.


	9. Chapter 9

**_So, this chapter is a bit explanation-esque. I figured i'd have to have one that explained how Al is an experienced ghost hunter. I don't want to write the story as he's all-knowing, but i did want to explain that he's a pretty experienced ghost hunter that is using his parents' equipment to track the spectral energy, searching for them. And that he's had some contact with some of the villains Danny has fought. So! Enjoy and let me know what you guys think! _**

Danny's ghost sense went off in his 5th period, Study Hall, and excused himself. He went to the bathroom and started flying around the school, looking for what had set off the sense. He went to the gym and found a woman ghost floating around the goals.

"Um, excuse me, ma'am," Danny started, "can I help you with anything?"

She turned around. She was wearing a lab coat with a tan blouse, a yellow ascot, and with a pair of chocolate pants. "Dearie, are you a ghost? How interesting, a ghost child," she said in a sickly sweet voice as she floated over to Phantom.

Phantom backed up slowly as he saw that she was reaching out to touch him. "Yeah, name's Danny Phantom. What's yours?"

"I don't remember."

"Well, what do you remember?"

"Not a whole lot. There's a boy here who I think I know, but I'm just not quite sure who he's supposed to be me. That and I had a husband, but I don't know what happened to him."

"What does he look like?"

"Brown hair, thin, muscular."

"Don't know him. I'll keep an eye out for him."

"That's nice of you, but I'd like to find him for myself. He's pretty special, of this I'm certain, but alas I don't know why."

At this moment, Al burst through the doors of the gym. "Hey, ghost kid, what's up?"

"Dude, who are you?"

"It doesn't matter who I am, all that matters is that you're ectoplasmic goo! _Adamas imbre_!" Al shouted the spell and threw three shards of crystal at Phantom.

Danny did his intangible act, as Tucker was so quick to call it, to avoid the three shards, but that didn't help him. He still felt the pain of them cutting him as they flew by his left arm and left oblique. _They affect me when I'm intangible, too?!_ Danny thought. _Is this the guy who attacked me last night?_

What Danny didn't see was that as the shards flew past him, they were headed to the woman ghost.

"AH! A demon! You're a bit of a challenge, unlike this ghost child who is interesting," the woman said as she dodged the shards. She flew towards Al with a look of thrill in her eye.

"Demon?! Did you just call me a demon?! Wait!" Al yelled at the female ghost hurdling towards him. "_Uariat speciem._" With this casting, Al reverted to his human form–not caring that Danny was in the room with him. "Who are you, ghost?" Al asked the woman who was flying towards him.

The ghostly woman stopped in her tracks before the boy. She reached out as if she thought she could touch his cheek and simply phased through him. "Why are you so familiar?"

"I know you, too, but my memory is a bit foggy," Al responded to her.

"Al?!" Phantom screamed.

"Who are you ghost kid?" Even though Al already knew the answer.

"His name is Danny Phantom," said the woman. "He was going to keep an eye out for someone, but I think I found him."

"Danny Phantom, huh?" Al spoke with sarcasm.

"Yeah," Phantom said, rubbing the back of his neck while floating near the other two. "You know, huh, Al?"

"Phantom, your secret is safe with me as long as mine is safe with you," Al said reassuring Fenton that he had no intention of telling. He knew how it felt to be hunted, so he'd trust Fenton/Phantom with the secret.

Danny decided to transform back into Fenton in front of Al, confirming the new kid's suspicions. "So, what are we going to do with her?"

"I don't know, Danny. I think I know her, but I'm not quite sure it's who I think she is," Al responded to the question. "Is there any way we can contain her? I mean, I could cast an energy sphere around her but the amount of magic required would be enormous considering that we've got a couple of hours of school to go."

"I'll just put her in the Fenton Thermos," Danny said. He turned and looked to her. "Would you mind if I put you in here? It'd only be for a few hours and after that, we'll let you out so we can work on your amnesia."

"Sure dearie," and off she slipped into the thermos.

"Before we go, I wanna ask you something, Al. Were you the one who attacked me as Phantom last night in the alleyway?" Danny said, putting a hand on his scar.

"No, last night I went home, after I stood y'all up at the Nasty Burger, and had to research something that lasted until 0200 this morning," Al responded curiously. "Why?"

"Because someone else used that same spell to throw _five_ shards of diamonds at me last night. He said something about 'wanting to find his son.'"

"HUH?!" Al asked.

"Yeah, this guy attacked me under the veil of darkness in the alley. When I asked him about his plan for world domination, he said all he wanted to do is find his son."

"Really, now?" Al said inquisitively. "I think I can help her and you at the same time, but it'll have to wait until tonight. Come over to my house, tonight around midnight, it'll be easier then," Al said to Fenton.

"But Dash is coming over tonight," Danny protested. He was actually looking forward to working with the jock at home instead of in private.

"Really?" Al glared at him with this 'did you _really_ just say that' look. "Why do you care if he comes over? Got a crush on him or something?"

"N…Na…NO! H…he…he's…he's not so bad outside of school," Danny objected to the look. "He spent the night last night and was actually kinda nice. That and I think his dad abuses him. Shit. Now he's going to kill me for spilling the beans on that."

Al started to walk to the door out of the gym, waving at Danny to come with him back to the routine of school.

"Danny, I honestly don't care that you or he or both of you are gay. It doesn't matter to me if you liked even me." Al explained. "This one kid at my last school had the biggest crush on me. He was very low key about it, but one of my abilities is empathy. I've learned to ignore most of the feelings that I feel over the years, but his was a very powerful emotion he was emanating. I was actually the jock around there. We hung out every day for the four months I was there. He was cool, a gamer and a massive Whovian, like me. We even went to a Con as 10 and Jack Harkness. I knew he liked me, but he respected the fact that the feelings were mutual. And as to the abuse that Dash suffers, I knew the moment I met him in the locker room. He really doesn't try to hide his emotions, most people just don't read them correctly," Al explained as they were walking in empty halls back to their respective classrooms. "But as for your emotions, they're all discombobulated. I ran into this ghost when I was in Missouri, a few months ago, who fed on misery, I'm sure you would be like an all you can eat buffet."

"You ran into Penelope Spectra!?"

"Yeah, she's a greedy, narcissistic, vampirical witch of a ghost. Although her assistant was a bit tougher than I thought at first, but once you learned her secret, it was easy pickings to suppress my emotions so she couldn't feed on them."

"Yeah, Bertrand was a bit tough for me, but she was sapping my strength so my doubt was in the forefront of my mind, distracting me. You're right, though. Once I figured her scheme out, I beat her."

_BRRRIIIIINNNNNGGGG!_

"Guess it's time for study hall for me," Al said.

"Yeah and I'm going to History," Danny said in response.

"So, meet up at my house at midnight or do you want me to come over to your house tonight? I'm sure I could talk to your parents about ghost-hunting long enough to let you and _Dashy-boy_ work on your project?" Al asked.

"Why do you call him 'Dashy-boy'?" Danny asked as he laughed.

"Don't know. Just something I thought of on the fly, and I like it. It fits him for me," Al said, joining in the halfa's laughter.

"Sure, come on over. I'll have Sam and Tuck over as well. I gotta break the news to them about you knowing my secret. Can I tell them yours?"

"Sure, but let me be there when you tell them. I'm sure I'm gonna have to do a parlor trick. Plus that'll give me time enough to deconstruct my portal at home."

"I meant to ask where's home for you?"

"Massachusetts."

"You have a ghost portal?"

"Not exactly, but my bloodline has the ability to create portals linking two places on the same plane of existence no matter how far apart, sorta like wormholes are thought to be two connecting black holes connecting different timelines.. The only thing is: I have to go to my parents' lab and deconstruct it there, which I find annoying, but it's a rule."

"Really?! That's interesting to know. So you can put a portal to your house in my room?"

"Yeah, but I can only have two portals open at a time; and I use them like the wormhole."

"Alright, Ross, I'll see you tonight. Come by around 2100, k?"

"Alright, man. Catch you later!"

* * *

_**So I truly didn't mean to write Ross as an empath, but I have watched a couple of episodes of Charmed in my lifetime, so... He's an empath.**_

_**Don't forget R&R if you're enjoying the story!**_

_**Have a good day!**_


	10. Chapter 10

_**Thanks so much to the folks following! Let me just say that watching the views of the story skyrocket is actually kinda cool! I enjoy watching you guys read this almost as much as writing the story. There's a NASCAR event in town so it's been kinda crazy around town (that's why I haven't updated). Here's a fairly big chapter (2940 words) with explanations, insight on the OC, some mental processes of our lovers, and just general story all around. Also, hopefully I can earn more brownie points with the author of my reviews :) I'd like to thank LacedWithIce and Lemonybean for writing really good stories that introduced me to the fandom: What Doesn't Kill Him Makes Him Stronger and Dude! I'm No Damsel! If you like my story, you might wanna check them out, too!**_

As 7th period started, Danny was sitting in history, contemplating on how to go about telling his best friends that: a) Al wasn't a halfa, but a warlock, b) not only does his ghost sense pick up ghosts, but they also pick up magic, and c) Al had fought Spectra before, so he knew that Sam would ask if Al knew anything about the other ghosts Danny had encountered so far. His head was hurting from the sheer amount of information thrown at him in just the past couple of hours. However, overall, it was a good day. He still kinda mad at Al for calling him out as gay, but at this point, he didn't care. Dash was coming over tonight around 2100 to work on their project and, hopefully, he wouldn't be spending the night (although he wouldn't object this time around if his mother imposed it on the two boys). Seeing Dash as a victim of abuse was startling to Danny. He hadn't told Sam or Tucker about the scars or the bruises on Dash's shoulders and back, but he did want Dash to talk to someone about it. It wasn't right. It was even less right of Dash to take it out on the kids at school, but Danny thought that it was better than bottling it up or throwing it back out at his father. If he did…Danny shuddered at the thought of what might happen.

…

Al had skipped French class to go the condo he owned here in Amity Park. He opened his door, and realized he had forgotten to pick up all the books he had brought from his parents' house. Some were on the coffee table, others were in the recliner, and a large cauldron was sitting on the stove in the kitchen. He looked around and shook his head. "What a mess I left when I went for school. Ms. Gavia would have tanned my hide if she saw this mess. I'll take care of it when I get back. It'll take me…" he paused to look at the grandfather clock in the corner of the living room, "Well, it's 1430 now… I might be back around 1800 or 1700 if I fly straight here when I deconstruct the portal. Let's check the flight schedule."

With this thought, he plopped in front of his laptop that was on the dining table and started searching, pricing in he always traveled first class when he had to fly 'by conventional means', and flying time between the house and the Albany International Airport (ALB) and O'Hare International (ORD) and Amity Park.

"Alright, so it takes me an hour to deconstruct that damn portal every time I break it down. So if I leave now, that'll put me there and done at 1545. Then from my house to ALB, it's another hour. So, I'll arrive at the airport at 1645. Then the flight departs at 1815 for a two-hour flight to ORD. So, that makes landing time 2030 at ORD. Then, from ORD to Amity Park is another four hours to drive 280 miles. But, I can fly at a speed of 85 mph, so that would make that trip about three hours. Meaning, I would be back at Fenton's house by 2345… UGH!" Al sighed as he was going over the calculations. "I wonder if there's any spells in Agatha's book to slow time," he said as he got up from the chair, "or at least a simple teleportation spell so I could get back quicker."

He walked out of the kitchen and over to the bookcase that was in the living room. He placed his right hand in front of him, bowing his head and closed his eyes, whispering a spell. His hand and the bookcase both became shrouded in a black aura. He looked up as he moved the bookcase to the right its position, perpendicular to the sofa now. Behind the bookcase was a swirling, gaping hole of darkness, almost like a void of space and time. He looked around the house, and made a quick gesture with his left hand towards the door, "_Obice,"_ he spoke as he waved his left hand behind him, sealing the lock to the door.

He walked through swirling void and found himself standing in his parents' lab. "Well, time to get to work."

…

…

Danny, Sam, and Tucker got out of History and went to their lockers. Danny waited as Sam and Tucker got out the homework materials they would need for the night.

"So, anything happen during study hall?" Sam asked.

"Nothing really–just a wandering ghost who really didn't put up a fight. But I did sorta run into Ross, who's pretty good at ghost hunting."

"Man, I'm missing all the action this week!" Tucker exclaimed as he closed his locker door.

"I'm tellin ya, Tuck, you didn't miss anything," Danny said to kinda quite down his friend.

"So, Ross _is_ a ghost, who's a ghost-hunter. Sounds a bit like you, Danny," Sam remarked nonchalantly.

"He's not _really_ a ghost. He's more on the side of gothic magic," Danny said, trying to ease into the subject that Albert Ross was anything but ordinary.

"Really, now?" Sam said, as her interest was piqued.

"Yeah, he's coming over tonight around 2100. Are you guys coming over as well?"

"Is Dash going to be there?" Sam asked, rather pointedly.

"Well, yeah, he's my partner," Danny answered with a slight smile. He remembered the conversation with Ross about his sexuality and decided that he couldn't let things be taken the wrong way anymore.

"Uh-huh," Sam offered in return. "So, you're telling me this: you want me, the Goth, him, the techno-geek, and the new kid, who gave Dash a swollen eye and bruised jaw, to be in the same room as Dash Baxter."

"He's not all that bad, guys! I promise. I think that he gets a lot of flak at home and he just vents out his frustrations on us kids at school," Danny said, carefully avoiding certain terms, but, nonetheless, quoting Ross verbatim.

"I don't know about that, man," Tucker said with reservations. "He's pretty brutal expressing his frustrations to us."

Sam kept her mouth shut as her thoughts went racing about inviting the two of them over. To his house. While Dash Baxter was there. _There's more to this than he's telling us, I just know it. And I still wanna know what that note was on his locker yesterday was about. Who wants to meet him in the park on Saturday?_

…

When they got to Danny's locker, he noticed another note, this time etched into the metal of his locker. _Will midnight be ok? Al 1 – yes, 2 - no_

"Wow," whispered Sam, "he's pretty good with magic."

"Oh, that's not even half of what he can do, Sam," Danny retorted with a chuckle. "So, what's the 1 and 2 for," Danny looked at the note, still lost in thought about the quarterback coming over tonight, and worrying about his parents, his friends, Jazz, and Al all being in the same room as Baxter.

"Dude, really? Tap once for yes, twice for no. Only question, how is he going to know the answer?" Tucker pondered.

"Well, I'll tap once," Danny said, pulling himself to the present situation. Doing the motion, the letters rearranged "_Thanks."_ And with that, the letters disappeared from the locker, leaving no trace of being etched there.

…

Al was in the basement of his home in Massachusetts when the spell he had placed on Danny's locker returned to him. _Yes,_ it read on the floor.

"Cool. Just in case," he looked at the writing of the spell, "did you charm anything in the locker?"

_History book_.

"Of course you would… Alright, if anything happens let me know. Also, if I need to contact him, did you at least charm something he keeps on his person?"

_Thermos._

"So, you're not a complete bust of a charming spell, huh?" Al said playfully to the black magic writing on the floor. "Another fifteen minutes and this portal should be fully deconstructed."

Al was very adept at using magic now. He enchanted or charmed something almost every day, just to make his day run a little bit smoother. Typically, it was a pot with food, but sometimes it would be clothes to fold themselves, or a pen at school so if he were astral projecting part of his conscience somewhere else to locate any sign of his parents, he wouldn't 'miss out' on class notes. On this occasion, he had found Agatha's book, charmed it so that it was levitating in front of him, and turning pages as he was done skimming them for teleportation spell. He figured he'd go with something simpler rather than trying to slow time. He thought that some Time Lord would be busting in his place with the TARDIS if he messed with time.

He had spent forty-five minutes searching the book, with nary a result. Until he looked at the next to last page of the book. _Material displacement: November 23, I located a demon that knew the secrets of moving his body from one point to another simply by envisioning the place of which he desired to be located. I fought and captured the demon, inquiring of such a miraculous work. I finally convinced the demon (although, after which, I kill him) to teach me how, teaching me the following spell. This spell, he warned prior to his death, was not for the faint of heart. It took considerable amounts of energy and concentration. I fashioned this spell to function as a portal between two points on our plane of existence as referenced by Uncle Melvin Heth, but in times of extreme measures, can be used a transplanar jump across any distance: _Salire localia_. Distance must be made in kilometers for the spell to function properly. Also, I personally suggest that one should rest before using this spell if one has expended large amounts of magic in the past twenty-four hours. A minimum of three hours should be sufficient to replicate the spell. Cade Macen_

"Great, more waiting," Al chuckled, "but at least I'll get to be there quicker. I'll have to send Danny a note." He spent the last fifteen minutes amusing himself in various ways: he thought of ways to get Dash in the locker room, or kissing Sam, or even getting Danny to explain how he got the ghost powers… Then he realized, _I hate being empathic, it does so spoil having emotions…_

…

Football practice:

_Man, I'm actually kind of excited to spend the night at Fenton's again. He's actually not that bad of a kid. His parents are absolutely bonkers, but he's got a normal family. He's even harsh on his older sister, which is funny. She's cute but his embarrassment was kinda cute, too. I wish I had a normal family. I hate that dad drinks all the time now. Maybe if he hadn't of lost his job three years ago, dad wouldn't have started drinking. He did get a new job, but it's not the same, he actually liked that job at the plant. He was so happy when I was younger. He's always pushing me to be better. I'm good at football, but my grades suck! Mom knows I'm doing my best, but it's just not enough for dad apparently. I'll never be smart enough to get a good job. I want to play football for Green Bay, but Dad wants me to 'actually do something with my life'. Mom'll be happy with that. She always tells me to follow my dreams, but dad he just —_

Dash wasn't paying attention. Kwan tackled him a bit too hard.

"Dude, are you alright?" Kwan called out.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, man."

"Dash, where is your head?"

"Sorry, thinking about something else."

"What's on your mind, dude?" Kwan asked as they went back to the locker room, now that practice was over.

"Nothin much," Dash said, "just thinking that project that I've got to work on with Fenton. That and my dad started again last night."

"Dude, I'm sorry about your dad. He's so rough on you. Yeah, but you don't have to work on that project with Foley. He's more a geek than Fenton'll ever dream. Dude, I don't even know half of what he was talking about last night at the library. Speaking of which, where you and Fenton working on yours?" Kwan said as they were changing out of their gear.

They walked over to the shower and started to wash off all the dirt, mud, grime, and sweat that covered their bodies.

"He asked if we could meet out at the Nasty Burger. So we were there until close," Dash lied to his friend. He wasn't about to tell his friend that he spent the night at Fenton's. "Although, tonight I'm going over to his house to finish up the final touches to the project report," Dash continued feigning the dread he didn't have.

Dash looked at his watch. _1945_, it read.

…

Dash looked up as his mom picked him up in the family convertible. He saw Phantom. His heart skipped a beat looking at his hero.

"Dash, sweetie, what's making you smile?" his mother asked.

"Oh, it's Danny Phantom. He's flying above us," he said with a smile.

"It's nice to see you smile, dear."

"I know, mom. It's great to know that there's someone like Phantom to protect the town from all the crazy happenings," Dash said as his smile grew bigger. "Hey, Phantom!"

Danny looked down. _DASH?!_ he thought, as he nearly flew into a light pole from looking at the boy in the car with his mother. "Hello, citizen!" he replied, waving down to the blonde, trying to sound like a superhero.

"The name's Baxter! Dash Baxter!" Dash called out as his hero recognized him.

_Yeah, I know, Dash, I know._ "Have a good night, Dash Baxter!" Phantom yelled out as he flew faster and disappeared out of sight (so Dash couldn't find out where Phantom lives).

Dash slightly squealed as his hero spoke his name. His mother looked over at her son, with a smile beaming from her face. "Now dear, are you sure you don't want to stay the night at Fenton's? I mean, you're always talking about the boy. Do you _like_ him? He seems nice, even if his parents are bit off their rockers."

"No, mom, I don't _like_ him," he somewhat growled at her, "I like someone else."

"Now dear, heroes are good to emulate, but they have reasons to wear that mask," his mom spoke lovingly.

"Mom, I'm not gay," Dash spoke flatly.

"Sure you're not, Dash, honey. You know I love you, right, Dash-y?"

Dash didn't know how to take this comment from his mother. He'd never felt any attraction to guys, but there was something about Phantom that he loved. He just couldn't put his finger on it. Sure, he dated Paulina for a bit, but she was the cheerleader captain and he was the quarterback, so it was expected, but even then, he wasn't even attracted to her.

He really didn't want to date anyone, truth be told. He was afraid of what his father would do or say to the girl or how she would react to finding his father was a drunk. But a guy…

…

The night passes with nary a sound. The Box Ghost was causing havoc down at the local UPS store, so Danny took care of that quickly that and seeing Dash going to his house. He had come back around 2000, just in time to meet Tucker and Sam at the front door. Dinner was being made, Maddie had made sure that Dash, Sam, and Tucker all had plates of food. So, she made sloppy joes, French fries, corn, and a salad mixing for Sam. Sam and Tucker were complaining about their partners, as usual, and then Jazz chimed in with a story from when she had Tolsoyski.

"I understand, guys, but having to work with Biff Bigham. And he was on the intelligence level of Dash. He was the defensive tackle for the football team when I was in that class. He transferred to some school Nebraska."

"Yeah, Jazz, I remember. He had that same look in his eye as Dash does when you're tutoring him," Danny poked at his sister. Just then, his ghost sense went off. Danny felt the thermos rumbling and started glowing black. He looked down at the floor. Inky black letters appeared on the floor. _ I'll be there shortly._ The letters pulled together and then rearranged. _Found something interesting in Agatha's book._ Another pool. _Can I come over? – Al_.

"Yes."

_Cool._ And with the final word, the black pool evaporated without exposing itself to anyone else in the house.

"Yes, what?" Jazz asked, as she looked at Danny confused.

* * *

_**alright, guys just so you know: the names of all my oc's are based on a bird's nomenclature (and if you haven't guessed what type of bird Albert Ross is, I'm thinking it took you a minute or two to get Bert Rand, like Phantom 3). If anyone is actually curious as to the birds I've been basing the names on, I'll gladly tell you :), but if not, then just go on your merry way and continue to enjoy my tale**_


	11. Chapter 11

_**Before you get started, I simply want to say THANK YOU to the 700+ views of this story! I love that you folks are enjoying this! I'm trying to stay in character for these peoples, but sometimes, as this is a fanfic, I have to sorta go with something they might say given the circumstances that weren't really addressed in the show (Although we all love, the DashxDanny moments), and it feels to me that I get outta character a couple of times (especially with Jazz). So I do apologize if I write out of character, I constantly have an episode or two up from the first season just to give me a sense of direction with the conversation...**_

* * *

"Nothing, Jazz," Sam said quickly, "you know how spacey your brother can be."

"Hey, Mom," Danny called out, "is it ok if another one of my classmates comes over? He's bringing the last half of our English notes and I wanted to copy them down."

"Why sure, dear," Maddie replied. "What's his name?"

"Al."

"Do you know if he's a vegetarian like Sam, here?"

"Uh, I saw him eating chicken in his salad yesterday at lunch, so I'm going to take a guess and say 'no'," Danny responded to his mother.

"Alright, I'll add some more sloppy joe mix to the bowl," Maddie said with a smile.

…

Dash got there first. He knocked on the door. "Fenton better be home…" he growled.

Sam got up from the table, awaiting the food and the arrival of the other two guests, and told Maddie that she would answer the door.

"Don't worry, Mrs. Fenton, I'll get the door. Al said he would be here shortly," she spoke as she left the room. She crossed the living room and opened the door. "Oh, it's you."

"Well thanks, Manson. Nice to see you too. What are you doing at Fentina's house? Are you two dating or something?" he inquired. He honestly wasn't sure why he asked that, it just came out of his mouth.

"What do you care, Dash? Do you want to date him or something?"

"NO! I just wondered why you answered the door instead of Jazz."

"Cause I thought you were Ross."

"Great, another loser to work with. I see you more than enough of you lo-sers at school. Do I have to see you after it as well?"

"Just come on in. We promised Danny we'd be on our best behavior with you here. So come on in, Mrs. Fenton's making dinner," Sam said gritting her teeth so she wouldn't say anything else.

"Fine."

"Danny, it's _Dash_."

"Oh, hey dear!" Maddie said as she peeked up from the bowl in front of her, "How are you tonight, everything ok?"

"Yes, Mrs. Fenton, everything's ok. Whatcha making for dinner?"

"Oh I'm just making some sloppy joe mix with some fries and corn. Do you want anything special?"

_Special? Why is she asking me if I want anything special? I'm the school bully, I torment her son every day, my folks hate them, and she treats me like I'm her son as well… Danny's got a good family. Crazy, but good… Why can't mine be like his?_

"Um, ice cream?" Dash said finally after a moment of hesitation.

"Sure, thing, Dash. I think I've got some Rocky Road left. How's that sound?" Maddie said, happily.

"Cool. So, Sam, you're telling me that _Ross_ is going to be here any minute?"

"Yep. And maybe he'll knock a little more sense into you than last time."

Jazz looked at Dash and tried to stifle her laughter (key word: _tried_).

"It's not funny, Jazz. That new kid really packed a punch, yesterday," Dash said to Jazz, who was holding her sides after the laughter subsided.

"You told me it was a football accident!" Jazz proclaimed.

"Mason…" Dash growled under his breath.

"Don't worry, Dash," Danny started with a pleasant pitch to his voice, "Al's actually coming here because he's helping us on our projects. He's a wiz at chemistry. He actually gave me the whole chemical breakdown of our project."

"Speaking of which, does it have something to do with ghosts?" Jack burst in on the conversation between the teenagers. "Because I'm your man if you need any help, son!"

"No, but thanks, Dad," Danny spoke while performing his nervous tick, "We're doing a study on alum."

"Yeah, it was in one of them cartoons when we were kids, as a gag. It was pretty cool," Dash said with a slight upward change in his pitch as he looked to Danny.

"Ah, nuts."

"Well, if you need anything…" Jack said, dejected.

_Ding-Dong_, rang the bell. _Welcome to FentonWorks, I'm Jack Fenton_. "Wow, that's a first," Al responded to the doorbell.

"I'll get it!" Danny threw back as he rushed to the door.

"Al, what's up? I thought you wanted to meet at midnight," Danny said as he opened the door

"Well, I looked up some travel information _wheeze_ and it would have been midnight _huff huff_ when I got here, but I found a spell _pant_ that allows for teleportation. Can I sit for a bit?" Al responded breathlessly, leaning on the frame of the door.

"Sure, man. It looks like that took a lot out of you," Danny said as he grabbed Ross by the arm and led him toward the sofa.

_Fenton!_ Dash thought, as he turned red when he saw Danny supporting Al. He didn't even notice that his body had gotten up and started walking towards the two boys.

"Hey, Dash! Mom just put your food in front of you!" Jazz yelled at the quarterback. She knew he didn't use manners, but surely, his parents taught him some.

"Huh?" Dash said as he came out of a fog, turning to see who had called his name. Seeing that Jazz was staring him down, Dash realized she had called him out of his fury and wanted him back at the table.

"Yeah, it did. First time I ever used it. Apparently, it's similar to the other thing about which I was telling you," Al said, acknowledging the situation and emotions of the room.

"I need about an hour to recuperate from this. I'll be fine, you go enjoy your dinner," Al said aloud, before whispering to Danny, grinning ear to ear, "with Dashy-boy."

Danny looked at Al hard. He flashed his eyes green to warn him not to push his buttons, and in return, Al's eyes went to the onyx color of _his_ alter ego, saying 'I'm just as dangerous as you are, buddy. Bring it on.'.

"Alright, but I'm bringing your food out here. Oh! and Mom, Dad, I forgot to mention: _Albert_'s parents are ghost-hunters as well!" Danny said with a smirk. _That'll teach him to call me queer in my own home_.

"WHAT?! REALLY, Albert?!"

Jack and Maddie zoomed over to the couch with the exhausted, young warlock. They started talking about the spectral energy that was happening around town. They asked him questions about his parents, to which Al obliged, begrudgingly. _ I'm gonna hurt that kid…_ Al thought, as he had to stave off the parental figures. He told the two ghost-hunters that his parents had gone off eight years ago to a government-contracted job of some paranormal activity in Wisconsin.

"Well, we know of a ghost out there," replied Maddie.

"Really? Huh? What's its name?"

"Do they need names? All we do is shoot them back into the Ghost Zone so they'll stop terrorizing the town. Although, there's a ghost kid that's been hanging around town for a couple of months now. We'd like to study him, molecule by molecule," Jack informed Al.

"Well, I saw the GHOST KID earlier today at school," Al said loud enough to grab Danny's attention. Jazz looked up from her plate, as well. Jack rushed back into the kitchen.

"Why didn't you tell me there was a ghost attack at the school today?! Danny? Sam? Tucker? Uh, Dexter?"

"It's Dash, and I didn't see anything."

"Nope, nothing," Sam and Tucker proclaimed.

"Dad, I was busy in Study Hall trying to get some homework done, I barely even notice that Al had skipped that class," Danny responded hastily.

"Well, how did you see him, Albert?" Maddie asked from the couch, beside the warlock.

"I was in the gym, _heading home. There was a package I was expecting to come today, and I didn't want it to be left outside of my condo,_" Al told Maddie.

"Well, don't go making it a habit, young man," scolded Maddie, as if she were his mother, "School is very important!"

"Yes, ma'am," Al said with a slight chuckle.

The hour passed quite eventfully, Al telling Jack and Maddie of growing up in Massachusetts, moving to Georgia when he was 11 _with his uncle_, and then to Missouri when he was 13_ with his aunt_. They asked why he moved to Amity Park. He simply replied that _his grandmother lived here and he lived with her._ Al actually hated using so much effort to keep up the charade. He couldn't tell them that he was looking for his parents, since they had been missing for the past eight years. The state already considered them dead, and he was beginning to believe that as well, but something deep inside of him still hoped that they were alive.

Danny caught wind of every lie Al told. He was going to ask for the truth later.

Dash was watching Danny eat, barely eating any of his food.

"So when did you stop trying to flirt with me?"

"Huh?" Dash was pulled out of his trance when Jazz spoke in a hushed tone.

"Come with me."

"Ok…"

…

…

Down the hall, away from the dining room and the living room, Jazz cornered Dash. "So what do you like about my brother that you didn't like about me? Was it the fact that I'm a girl?"

"What are you talking about, Jazz?!" Dash exclaimed.

"Last night and tonight, you haven't taken your eyes off my brother. I remember when you used to use our study sessions as a chance to hit on me."

"I'm not _staring_ at him. I'm just simply thinking about things at home," Dash said nervously, blushing.

"Uh-huh," Jazz uttered. "So, you're not interested in my brother sexually?"

"Jazz, I'm not gay," Dash exclaimed. "I don't know why everybody keeps on thinking I am!"

"Alright, but if you hurt him, there'll be hell to pay," she threatened as she went back to the dining room. Dash followed suit.


	12. Chapter 12

Downstairs in the lab, Maddie was helping the boys and Sam with all of their projects. Sam and Star had planned to determine if ethanol was a better fuel to burn that gasoline. Tucker and Kwan (well, mostly Tucker) had decided to go the technical route, and discuss the different types of batteries and which type of batteries lasted the longest.

Maddie had found the aluminium, sulfuric acid, and potassium hydroxide for Dash and Danny. Al was working on a graph of magnetism and its relation to a substance's Curie temperature with references to antiferromagnetic (he decided to leave the introduction and ferromagnetism for Paulina). He had asked if Maddie if they had any gold-plated Nd2Fe14B and some pyrolytic carbon. Maddie said that she had some in the garage. She went to get Jack and together, they went to the garage, to the supplies for the group.

"Guys, I'll be right back," Dash stated flatly.

Sam and Tucker looked at each other and just shrugged their shoulders. Danny's smile slightly dissipated as the jock left the room. They all figured the obvious: he had to take a whiz.

"So, Al," started Sam, "Danny here told Tucker and I that you use magic."

"Really, now? When did he tell you that bit of information," Al questioned.

"When you etched your note into his locker," Tucker offered the explanation.

"He also mentioned that 'that wasn't even half of what' you 'could do'," Sam continued.

"Well, it's not. It's sorta similar to his Phantom trick. Only, I don't have a ring of light around my body," Al stated quite comfortably.

"He knows you're Phantom!" Sam and Tucker yelled at Danny.

"Well, when this gho– SHIT! I forgot all about her! Where's the thermos?!" Danny shouted.

"It's right here," Al said nonchalantly. "So how do you work this thing?"

"I don't really know. All I know is that I have to touch it to work," Danny stated as he reached his hand out for the thermos.

"Well, let me give it a whirl," Al said with a smile on his face.

"Ok… I guess."

With this, Al concentrated his dark energy around the thermos and out shot a beam of black energy, releasing the ghost that was within.

"Thanks for finally letting me out, dearie. Oh my, what a nice laboratory!" the female ghost exclaimed as she looked around the room.

"So, have you remembered who you are, ma'am?" Danny asked politely.

The ghost looked confused at Danny. "Who are you?" she asked.

Danny transformed in to Phantom. "I'm the ghost kid from earlier, remember?"

"Oh, my! You're part human as well. I do know that my husband had something special about him, as well."

"Could it be this?" Al chimed in on the conversation between the halfa and the ghostly woman. "_Uariat speciem. Diomedea epomophora_!" he cried out as he threw his right hand above his head. The same dark shroud covered his body, dissipating to reveal his altered form.

"_Diomedea epomophora_," began the woman, "the scientific name for the Southern Royal Albatross."

"Albert Ross, Albatross. Really, Ross?" Sam questioned after she saw his transformed state. She thought that set of wide, white wings with black streaks were rather pretty.

"Hey, it's not my fault. That's what my parents named me," Al replied.

Tucker stood there in amazement of the transformation. "You look like Angel crossed with Nightcrawler!" he stated as he started laughing.

"Yeah, I kinda do, but I'm not blue."

"Ross, is that your last name?" asked the woman.

"Yes, ma'am."

"I remember a Ross," she said. She closed her eyes in an effort to race through her memories as a human. "_Junco_," she said after several moments, opening her eyes.

"I've brought something here from my home. I think it could jog your memory. You look very similar to the woman in the picture. She's my mamma," Al said as he charmed a photo in his backpack to come to his hand. He gave her the photo.

She looked at it. It was a photo of a man, woman, and their son. The man had fiery red irises and brunette hair with undertones of red. He was a thinner man, but there were definitely muscle tone to the man. He had a beard that was as fiery red as his eyes. He looked to be about 5' 8". The woman looked to be about 5' 10". She had on the same lab coat as the ghost, but her hair was pulled back into a ponytail. The ghost touched the curls she was sporting and pulled a set behind her ears. The woman in the picture was wearing the same outfit as the ghost as well. Then the ghost looked at the child, looking about the age of 4 or 5. She noted that the boy in the photo was slightly paler than the warlock floating before her. The child's hair was white with a hint of brunette hair at the root. She noted the white suit the boy was wearing and compared it to the white body of the warlock in front of her.

"Am I your mother?" She finally spoke.

"Hey, Fenton! Your mo–HOLY SHIT! GHOSTS! Danny Phantom! What are you doing here?!" Dash proclaimed as he took the final step into the lab, shocked by the altered appearance of Fenton and Ross. "Where'd that loser Fenton go?!"

"Did somebody say 'Ghost!'," Maddie yelled as she lunged down the stairs to the lab.

"_Zuman dondurma!_" Al yelled, as he clapped his hands, clasping them together.

"What the HELL is going on here?!" Sam yelled out.

"I, uh, kinda froze time," Al responded

"I hope you have a memory swipe spell," Tucker added to the conversation.

"I might. I'll have to find it in my book," Al said as he levitated the book to his hands.

"So what are we going to do with her?!" Danny said to Al.

"Send her into the Ghost Zone. She'll be safe there," Sam answered, as she saw Al quickly skimming the contents of his book. "Quick, ma'am, you need to go into that swirling green portal!"

"But–"

"If you don't, my parents will want to dissect you," Danny said hastily.

"Alright, but please don't forget about me this time, dearie," she said as she patted Phantom on the head. "And, please, take care of him. I've got so many questions for him," she noted, pointing to Al.


	13. Chapter 13

_**Sorry about the last chapter feeling so rushed. I forgot what time it was and had to get ready for work. I'll have you know, though that from the 10th of August to today, Sept. 1, I've only not had readers for one whole day! That makes me happy (although I would have liked to have a continuous stream of readers, but hey, i appreciate all of you who do read!) This one was a bit fun to write, took me a couple days to write it (work and all) but nonetheless, some of the spells needed translations and I just had to work around work. Enjoy!**_

After the female specter left into the Ghost Zone, Sam started to question Al about coming to Amity Park.

"So, did you know that Danny was Phantom, already?" Sam tore into him.

"Sam, you might want to let up on your tone. Al's a bit sensitive," Danny said as he floated over to the Goth girl.

"I don't care if he's sensi–" Sam started.

"Sweetie, I'm an empath! I can feel your emotions and you tearing into me like a bear into salmon ain't helping me concentrate on finding why I could cast that spell," Al interrupted.

"What do you mean, Ross-man?" Tucker asked.

"I can feel every emotion every person in town is feeling. When people become severely agitated, like Sam here, it's basically a sensory overload and can be quite painful," Al explained to Tucker. Turning to Sam, he said, "And to answer your question: no I didn't come here because I knew about Phantom. My parents' lab is equipped with a very sensitive ectospectrometer. It will give me a longitude and latitude coordinates of where the highest level of ectoplasmic activity is occurring. After Ms. Gavia died, I became an emancipated minor. I could move freely without any suspicions. I used my charisma–and a touch of magic–to influence people that they always saw Ms. Gavia, even though she hadn't been there. I moved to Georgia when I was 11, then to Missouri at 12, and Minnesota at 13, telling people that I 'lived with a relative', when in reality, I was, and always have been, alone."

"I'm sorry," Sam said truly.

"I know."

"So, how did you cast that spell?" Danny asked.

"I don't know. Most of the spells I've learned have always been in Latin. That one was spoken in Turkish," Al explained.

"So, what's the difference?" Sam asked.

"I don't know, but I think I've found the spell."

_Under severe duress, while in your altered form, you may use spells in a foreign language. This is because the altered form is a form of magic that typically is at higher level of spellcasting. When you have learned to control the form, it will present its higher knowledge. For example, some time spells are in Turkish or Arabic, mind control spells are in Japanese or Chinese, and devastation spells are typically in Russian. The reason for time spells being in Turkish, mostly, is that my grandfather told me that there is a tome with spells relating to time resting in an ancient catacomb under the foundations of Constantinople. If any such tome truly exists, it would be the end of Death as we know it. Death, a force of nature, can not be stopped. If it were, there would be dire consequences upon the one who stopped time, the least of being turned into a living skeleton. There are spells that temporarily stop time which are acceptable, but not should exceed twenty-four hours. Mind control and possession spells are known to be in Japanese, mostly, because the Satori were known for its ability to read minds. Destruction spells are in Russian because of the bloodshed for which the tsars were known._

_The simplest spell to stop time is _Zuman dondurma_, a spell that has its own time-frame of 5 hours, that encompasses the town in which you cast the spell. _Kokoro Shoji_ is the simplest mind control spell which traps the victim's mind, which becomes totally unaware of the possession, as the user can control every faculty of the possessed body._ Сжигание! _is the simplest destruction spell, which is pronounced _szhiganiye_, meaning _Incineration!_. Cade Macen._

Al read this section of the book aloud to Sam, Tucker, and Phantom.

"Well, that's all well and good, but I'm more concerned about a memory wipe," Tucker said, voicing his concern once more.

"Well, according to Cade, it would be a Japanese incantation, since it's a mental alteration," Al said, flipping through the book.

"Hey, Al," Sam started, "how long have you had that book?"

"Um, about five years?" Al responded confused.

"So how often do you study the book," she continued questioning.

"Um, only when I need a new spell to get myself of a situation," Al responded truthfully. "Found it. _Kokoro no sh__ū__sei_.It's apparently translated 'mind modification'."

"So what are we going to do, guys?" Tucker asked the group.

"Well, we could mod their minds to where they only saw the ghost and Phantom, and let them only see me as a normal human, since they're used to seeing you and ghosts around town," Al suggested. No one really argued with the boy.

"Well, it would mean that Phantom would have to disappear and we would have to explain where Danny went without anyone seeing him," Sam said thoughtfully.

"Leave that to me," Al said, slightly breathless.

"Dude are you alright?" Tucker asked.

"Not really, I've never spent that much dark energy while in this form. I've actually never cast that spell before, so I don't know how much it requires. I should still be able to do a simple manipulation," Al offered as an explanation.

"So, how do you undo a spell?" Sam asked.

"Simple. _Leporum transuerso_ is the spell that I use to cancel any spell that I've cast."

"But you just said it, and they're still frozen," Tucker noted.

"I wasn't casting the spell, I simply spoke it," replied Al. "But when I find the other spell that I'm looking for, I'll show you the difference."

"Well, hurry up. I don't like the face dash is making at us," Sam pleaded.

"What's wrong with his face, Sam?" Danny asked, kinda hurt.

He floated down and transformed back into Fenton. "He's not as mean as you guys make him out to be."

"Says the guy who is the victim of his beatings. Honestly, for the past two days you've been defending him more than usual," Sam argued back, realizing the empathy was trying to concentrate.

"Hey, Al, if I take off Dash's shirt, will I become frozen in time?"

"I don't think so, Danny, but like I said: I've never cast the spell before, so I don't know what's going to happen," Al responded.

Danny walked over to Dash very carefully. He touched the boy on the shoulder, testing the limits of the spell. It didn't seem to freeze him, so he carefully lifted the shirt. "This is why I'm trying to be nice to him, Sam."

"Oh, my gosh!" exclaimed Sam, as she walked over to the jock. "I had no idea! These bruises. Are they from–"

"His father, I'm guessing," Danny replied to her shock.

"I didn't know."

"I didn't know until this morning, either," Danny said as he went to comfort the Goth. Despite his emerging feelings for Dash, he was still having feelings for Sam.

"So what are you going to do?" Tucker chimed in on the conversation.

"I'm going to just let him pick on me at school, probably. But beyond that, I don't know," Danny replied to the black kid.

"How noble of you, Sir Fenton," Al replied with a British accent, joking with the halfa.

"Well, I mean, he's not so bad when we're not at school, so that must mean that there's some part of him that's good. I think he's just afraid he'll get a rep as being nice," Danny responded to the group.

"Found it, that other spell I needed," Al exclaimed loudly.

"What were you looking for, Al?" Sam asked.

"I needed to know how to combine the two types of spells–Memory modification and restarting time," Al spoke in response.

"So, it's been about half an hour since you stopped time, how are you going to modify that?" Tucker asked quizzically.

"I have three spells: the primary being a mental modification of time passing, the modification of memories, the secondary being time restarting. The book says that when combining spells, one must speak the language of the primary spell. If another spell is in another language, it will be broken with the corresponding phrase of the primary spell," Al explained.

"So you have to know Japanese," Tucker said.

"Basically, yes."

"So… Do you?"

"No."

"So what are we going to do?" Sam asked.

"To the interwebz!" Al yelled out, enthusiastically, with a finger thrown in the air.

They went over to the computer in the lab, looked up a basic translation page, and gave the spell a whirl.

"All right guys, get in a normal looking position. Danny, you might want to put Dash's shirt back on, I'm tired from casting that time spell. This is going to be a complicated spell, so it's going to completely drain me."

Danny put the shirt back on the jock, blushing as he did so.

"Alright, everybody ready?! Here goes! Jikan no sakidō, atarashī kokoro no shūsei, yūrei ya ahōdori no sakujo, taimu kasan: sanju-bu," Al proclaimed, making various hand motions while chanting the spell.

A dark energy ring radiated from the warlock and time restarted.

"Hey, FENTON! Your mom's got stuff for our project," Dash said. "Oh, and by the way, I think the power went out for about thirty minutes, all the clocks are wrong."

"DUDE! It totally worked!" Tucker proclaimed to the now exhausted warlock.

"Kids, it's getting late. How about you all spend the night? Jack found the air mattress and I'm sure I can find some sleeping bags in the assault vehicle," Maddie said sweetly. According to the clock (hehe), it was now quarter to one in the morning.

"Well, I mean, he's not so bad when we're not at school, so that must mean that there's some part of him that's good. I think he's just afraid he'll get a rep as being nice," Danny responded to the group.

"Found it, that other spell I needed," Al exclaimed loudly.

"What were you looking for, Al?" Sam asked.

"I needed to know how to combine the two types of spells–Memory modification and restarting time," Al spoke in response.

"So, it's been about half an hour since you stopped time, how are you going to modify that?" Tucker asked quizzically.

"I have three spells: the primary being a mental modification of time passing, the modification of memories, the secondary being time restarting. The book says that when combining spells, one must speak the language of the primary spell. If another spell is in another language, it will be broken with the corresponding phrase of the primary spell," Al explained.

"So you have to know Japanese," Tucker said.

"Basically, yes."

"So… Do you?"

"No."

"So what are we going to do?" Sam asked.

"To the interwebz!" Al yelled out, enthusiastically, with a finger thrown in the air.

They went over to the computer in the lab, looked up a basic translation page, and gave the spell a whirl.

"All right guys, get in a normal looking position. Danny, you might want to put Dash's shirt back on, I'm tired from casting that time spell. This is going to be a complicated spell, so it's going to completely drain me."

Danny put the shirt back on the jock, blushing as he did so.

"Alright, everybody ready?! Here goes! Jikan no sakidō, atarashī kokoro no shūsei, yūrei ya ahōdori no sakujo, taimu kasan: sanju-bu," Al proclaimed, making various hand motions while chanting the spell.

A dark energy ring radiated from the warlock and time restarted.

"Hey, FENTON! Your mom's got stuff for our project," Dash said. "Oh, and by the way, I think the power went out for about thirty minutes, all the clocks are wrong."

"DUDE! It totally worked!" Tucker proclaimed to the now exhausted warlock.

"Kids, it's getting late. How about you all spend the night? Jack found the air mattress and I'm sure I can find some sleeping bags in the assault vehicle," Maddie said sweetly. According to the clock (hehe), it was now quarter to one in the morning.


	14. Chapter 14

_**Super-di-dooper short chapter (949 words), but I like the end of the chapter, it's KAWAII! I love all you readers! Keep reading and don't be afraid to review! I promise I won't get hurt!**_

They (being Jack and Maddie) had decided that the boys were going to sleep in Danny's room and Sam would be sleeping with Jazz in her room. Jazz was putting together some final additions on her project for Psychology 101 that was due in the morning and Sam was changing into a pair of pajamas Jazz had let her use.

"So, have you noticed anything weird about Danny lately?" Jazz started, trying to make conversation.

"Um, no…" Sam said, trying to avoid the conversation that she knew Jazz was trying to start.

"Really, Sam? You haven't noticed that in the past twenty-four hours, my brother has been acting rather strange around Dash? And that Dash, in return, has been acting just as strange when around Danny?"

"Nope," Sam replied briskly, trying so desperately not to gossip with her crush's older sister. Now, since she found out that Al was an empath, hiding those feelings became even more paramount.

"Are you trying to avoid this conversation?"

"Yes," Sam answered honestly.

"Don't you think that Dash having feelings for Danny might run interference with your feelings for Danny? I mean as I see it, now that you and Dash are trying to vie for my brother's attention, either choice he's going to make will hurt one of you," Jazz replied getting under the covers of the bed. "I personally don't care that Danny's bi, or even gay, but no one wins when they are _forced_ to choose."

"It's his choice, Jazz," Sam replied, tempering her voice with an unnatural coolness on the topic, "so, _if_ what you are say were even true, I have no say in the matter." With the statement, Sam on the bed, on top of the covers, since the room was comfortable to her.

…

In Danny's room:

"Lord, have mercy! Guys! All I wanna do is sleep! I'm tired!" moaned Al.

"I ain't sleepin with Fentonio again," Dash yelled.

"Well, count me out," proclaimed Tucker.

"Boys, boys! You're both pretty, so quit your bickerin'" yelled Al at the two boys arguing who's gonna sleep with whom.

"Dash, just get in bed," Danny said coolly, trying not to let the empath feel his growing excitement over Dash's complaining. "Tuck'll sleep on the air mattress and Al's gonna sleep on the floor, since that mattress isn't big enough for the two of them."

"I don't care who sleeps where! I just wanna sleep!"

"We know, Al," Dash said through gritted teeth. He was starting to hate that new kid, but he just couldn't figure out why.

"I'm ok with sleeping on the twin mattress," Tucker said, pleased.

"And Dash, Danny's small, so you and he can share his full bed a lot better than me," Al said with a crooked smile. He was totally using his empathic abilities to his advantage at this point.

"But you're smaller than me, dude. You're about Danny's size," Dash said, not realizing he had just used Fenton's first name, "so why would I share when you would be more comfortable?"

"I've slept on the floor since I was a kid," Al responded. "I find that mattresses aren't firm enough for me, so I just sleep on the floor with two pillows."

"Whatever… Are we all ready for bed?" Dash growled.

"Finally! I've been ready!"

"Fenton, you got anything more to do?"

"Yeah, I've got to go brush my teeth, I'll be back in a minute."

"Alright, well hurry up. You're crazy parents will have us up at some ungodly hour…" Dash complained.

A couple minutes later, Danny walked in a dark room to see the new kid zonked out on the floor beside the bed on Danny's side. Tucker was playing on his PDA, no doubt checking email or playing some game. Dash had curled up on his left side with his shirt off. Dash was always hot, much less hot-tempered, so he always slept with his shirt off. Danny had noticed how warm Dash was simply by sleeping beside him, back to back, last night. Tonight, however, Danny just lay in bed, on his back, trying to count sheep or something, to lull himself to sleep. He could feel the quarterback's heat radiating and warming his own body. He turned on his left shoulder and fell asleep shortly from the warmth. Dash opened his eyes as soon as he heard the halfa snoring lightly. He looked over the body before him. He felt rather strange: he wanted to put his arm around the boy and pull him into himself. He didn't know how Danny wo– _Since when did I start calling him 'Danny'? I'm glad none of the others caught that slip. Although, that new kid, Ross, he tends to be able to analyze thing rather well. And why do I want to pull him into my body._ He lifted his right slowly, trying not to be seen (although it was a moonless night, the bright lights of _FentonWorks_ still cast their green aura). He put his arm around Danny's waist and grabbed the boy like a giant football. It felt so natural. It felt good. He pulled the boy's body closer to his, trying his best to not awaken him. Dash thought that if he could move his body slowly, the dream Danny was having would guide him back into him. He succeeded in his actions, because Tucker never noticed the action, whether it was due to him being engrossed in his PDA or he was asleep, Dash didn't care. For the first time in his life, he felt happy. _Maybe I am gay, but it's only for Danny Phantom. But here with Fenton, this feels like Phantom doesn't exist._


	15. Chapter 15

_**Thanks for the new follow! So this chapter is a dream chapter representing the past, present, and possible (although I highly doubt I'd do a massive rewrite of the end) future. I know that I'll need to have more ghost-y-ness, so in the next couple of chapters, I'll probably throw in a fight with Val and Danny and Al, a couple of the recurring villains that will have Phantom and Albatross fighting together. Also, I'm sorry that it's taken me 15 chapters to get to Wednesday morning. Like I say my stories write themselves, but I will try to pick up the pace on the week. Hopefully I can end this story by "in-story" Saturday.**_

Nightmares tend to bring out the worst in people:

_Danny Fenton:_

_Danny woke up on the floor of his parents' lab, fully transformed into Phantom. He thought he was reliving the same dream he had often dreamt about the accident, except he didn't see Tucker or Sam in the room. The portal to the alternate dimension swirled its ghastly green before him. He decided that he wanted to get away from it. He flew through the ceiling of the lab and out into the open world outside _FentonWorks'_ four walls. What he saw shocked him._

_His town, Amity Park, was in shambles. It looked as if some supervillain had completely obliterated his town from the face of the Earth._

"_What happened?!"_

_Seeing people down the street, Phantom flew to them._

"_What happened here?"_

"_Where did you go? You were the town hero," the woman asked._

"_Nowhere, I just woke up. What year is it?"_

_The man beside her responded. "2020, you've been gone for 15 years, Phantom."_

_The woman looked at him quizzically. "Why haven't you aged? It's been 15 years since you disappeared and you look as though you haven't aged a day."_

"_Do you know of Sam Manson and Tucker Foley?"_

"_Uh, yeah," man responded, "You're looking at them."_

_Danny didn't even know what to say. They looked completely different. Sam had started wearing colors: her outfit was a red, floral print blouse with a chestnut pair of dress slacks. Tucker's mocha skin tone had lightened into a milky chocolate color. He had lost the glasses and gained contacts. His beret was gone and now wore a grey sweater vest, like his father, and grey slacks. He was also wearing a wedding band._

"_Guys! What happened?!"_

"_After you disappeared, all the ghosts were attacking Amity Park. Albert was able to seal the town in a time lock, but at an expensive price. The only ghosts left that still attempt to break the seal are Plasmius and the Fright Knight," Sam explained, as she fiddled with her wedding ring._

"_Yeah, dude, he was able to reach out to some warlocks and witches that lived near his hometown and convinced them to stay here and maintain the seal. He was the only one who was powerful enough to keep them all at bay while he was alive. Now the whole town has a magic spell around it that allows us to continue living until we were originally going to die," Tucker continued._

"_So, how does everyone get food and stuff like that?" Phantom asked._

"_Magic," they responded together._

"_So, if the spell Ross cast was so powerful to seal the town in a time lock, what happened to reconstruction? Why didn't he use magic to rebuild it first?" Danny was still confused at the state of destruction around him._

"_He was given a choice by some supreme council, he said." Sam elaborated. "He mentioned that that some '_proclamation_' that gave him a choice to either seal the town in a time lock–lock, stock, and barrel of destruction, with no chance of reconstruction–and no further ghostly visitors, or have the ability to rebuild the town but to never be able to stop the ghosts."_

"_He said that you would have made the same choice he did, dude," Tucker continued the story. "He told us that the price of the spell he was using was the caster's life. The seal allowed him to choose four mages to supply the energy needed to maintain spell. Those four chosen people would be granted immortality to simply protect the city from the ghosts' attacks until the last person in Amity Park died at their natural time of death."_

"_So who did you guys marry? Tucker, did you marry Valerie? Sam, you probably ended up marrying Dash, or Kwan," Danny jokingly said._

"_Danny, we're married," Sam responded as she clasped Tucker's hand._

"_What? How?! Why?!"_

"_We couldn't tell anyone else of your secret. Hell, Albert ended up alone, Dash regrets marrying Paulina, and I don't really care about anybody else," Sam spouted off at the ungrateful boy floating before her._

"_Why does Dash _regret_ marrying Paulina?" Danny asked quizzically. "And another thing, what happened to Jazz and my parents? Where are they?"_

"_Jazz left town, and Al ended up killing your parents the wake of casting the spell," Tucker said with a sigh._

"_How in the hell did he do that?!"_

"_He was attacking a powerful ghost, and in his Albatross form, they started attacking him. The emotions between the ghost he was fighting, their hatred, and his own emotion were a bit too much so before he had the chance to cast the spell, he killed them with a scythe, and then obliterated the ghost from existence, and then cast the time lock spell," Sam explain._

Danny woke up. He found that Dash's hand was across his stomach and he was lying on his back. He rolled over slightly (so he wouldn't disturb Dash) and looked down at a sleeping Al, neon eyes glowing with hatred. He saw the newfound ally writhing in his sleep as well, obviously fighting his own demonic nightmare. His eyes changed back to the baby blue eyes for which he was known, softening his hatred. He looked to the digital clock giving off its white aura: 0145. Danny closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep, hoping he could have a better dream than the one that had just awoken him. Dash's arm twinged slightly, causing Danny to gasp. _Since when did I care about Dash? He still annoys me to no end, but now that he's been forced into my lab partner, he's ok. He's always been a thorn in my side and now he's showing a nicer side to me, well, when we're alone anyway. Why does he have to act so differently around people?_ Danny felt his thought swirl around the boy who was holding him. He scooted over towards the quarterback, since he noticed that he was visibly shaking, in an effort to comfort the trouble-plagued blonde. Danny turned on his right shoulder this time and faced the bare chest of that radiator he called a bully and fell asleep again quickly.

…

_Albert Ross:_

_In his parents' lab, Al saw a young boy. He looked to be six or seven years old. Al took a step closer to get a better look at the child. He saw blonde hair and something that was sparkling all around the boy. He looked closer and saw a freestanding mirror holder that was missing the mirror. After several steps towards the boy, the setting disappeared into a void. A light was shining from below the young boy and encircled him. "_Uariat speciem_," Al called out to change into a more battle-ready form. He was used to ectoplasmic phenomena, and decided it was better to err on the side of caution. The form he had chosen was a more human looking appearance than his true altered self. His skin was thicker, his muscles were enlarged slightly, and his eyes glowed red. As he levitated himself over to the boy, he noticed that the boy was crying with his face in his hands. "What's wrong, buddy?" Al asked in a gentle tenor voice._

_The boy continued to cry._

_Al looked up at the mirror frame. He saw that there was a large piece of glass in the bottom quarter of the mirror, albeit fractured into five distinct parts. He turned his attention back to the boy. "Hey, look at me, buddy." Al stuck his tongue out, filled his cheeks with air, crossed his eyes, and pulled his ears out to the side in an attempt to make the boy laugh._

_The young boy looked up, and just stared at the warlock, his icy blue eyes piercing into Al's eyes. He had stopped crying to look at the teenager. Al uncrossed his eyes to see cuts all along the boy's hands. "See, that's better," Al stated as he put his arms out, for the boy to walk into them. "Let's pick up this glass and put the mirror back together, huh?"_

"_I try," the boy finally said, "but when I get too close to it, the pieces slip out of my hands and it hurts."_

"_I'm sorry, buddy. Can I try to help you?"_

"_I don't know. No one's ever tried to help me before."_

_Al took a larger piece of glass from the ground and picked it up. He walked over to the mirror with the boy in tow, and reached out to put the piece back in the mirror._

Al woke up breathless, sitting straight up. He had never been one to dream, or at least he could never recall a time he remembered a dream so vividly. He looked at his watch: 0230. He laid back down, steadying his breath as he tried to get some more sleep.

…

_Dash Baxter:_

_Dash stood up from the table at school. "I CAN NOT believe that Danny and Sam are homecoming king and Queen!" he roared._

"_Dude, what's your deal?" Kwan asked. "What does it matter that they're the king and queen?"_

"_Because, man, I – I – I'm supposed to be king," Dash stuttered._

"_So who'd be the queen?" Jeremiah asked._

"Danny Phantom," _Dash thought. He was actually in love with Danny Phantom. He knew that Phantom was a guy, but he didn't care. He just knew that Phantom wouldn't hurt him the way his father or anyone else had before. Phantom wouldn't make fun of his dreams, or tell him how stupid he was. Something about Phantom was true, innocent, so pure. But he just knew two things: Phantom wasn't interested in him being a normal human (much less being male) and even if he was interested, Dash would only corrupt things, that's all he'd ever been told. "I guess Paulina. Duh, Jeremiah!" Dash snapped back._

_Scott looked at Dash. "Dude, why do you even care?! Danny's dating Al anyway."_

"_I wanna know just how in the hell THEY got elected! I don't give a shit who Danny is dating."_

"_Well, when you are best friends with Paulina, you tend to get elected anywhere," Scott said, trying to calm the blonde down._

_Dash wanted Phantom. It seemed that he should have been getting close to Fenton, since his parents were ghost hunters. I was an idiot for not trying to flirt the information out of Fenton. But he didn't want the whole school to know he was gay. And Paulina's mouth would surely tell. Dash was seeing green the more he thought about Fenton, Phantom, and the whole situation. He decided to go to the weight room to work of the jealousy._

_In the weight room, he saw Al. In two days, this new kid had managed to annoy the piss out of the bully. It wasn't even like he knew him, but there was just _something_ about the kid that annoyed him. He walked over to Al in the weight room and dragged him out into the hall. "Why are you dating Fenton?" Dash hissed._

"_What's it to you, Dashy-boy? It's not like you're interested in him, or… Or are you?" Al asked with a wicked grin._

"_I'm not gay. I don't like Pha-Fenton!"_

"_Why the stutter?"_

"_I'm warning you, Ross, don't play games with me!" Dash yelled._

"_The only question I have for you is this: Who _are_ you playing games with, Dash Baxter? Danny, me, yourself? Why do you constantly pick on Danny? It's like watchin a girl torment the boy she likes; it's so preschool, it's actually kinda amusing to watch. I swear, Dash, it doesn't even take a rocket scientist to see that you have the hots for my boyfriend."_

"_I don't like him. I like Phantom!" Dash roared at the new student. He put his hands over his mouth, realizing just how loud his voice had gotten._

"_Wow, Dash, I knew you liked some guy, but _Phantom_?! Really?" Al joked, loudly._

_Dash had just outed himself. He felt so embarrassed. He looked at Al._

"_Well, I'm bettin' you're feelin' about knee-high to a grasshopper, aren't ya, Dash? See this is the feeling that all the kids you bully feel. It's not a good feeling, now is it?" Al said quietly._

Dash woke up in a cold sweat. _A dream, it was only a dream._ Dash noticed that Danny was facing him, still asleep. He noted that Danny had effectively curled into him. He then noted that his face was suddenly getting warmer. _Dammit, I'm blushing! Good thing Fenton's asleep._ He lifted up to look at the clock: 0330. _Good, I get some more sleep._ With this, he put his arm around Fenton and pulled him in as he fell back asleep.


	16. Chapter 16

_**Alright, so I know it's been at least two weeks since I last updated. And for that I do apologize. Work has been interfering plus some craziness that is called my family life has been keeping me from writing. I just didn't have anything behooving me to write. I am sorry to you, my readers. thanks for the support! Also, do you all like the little information about the days of the week that i started with tuesday? I did it for Wednesday and found it to be superfluous information, but I wanted to continue with this chapter. I like it... ANYWAYS! Enjoy :) (maybe i'll have some kind of ghost battle with Ross and Phantom... I'm just trying to figure out who would be a good opponent for the two, maybe Plasmius...)**_

Wednesday. In Japanese, _suiyobi_, translated water day for _suisei_, the water star, Mercury. It is Germanic in origin, Wōdnesdaeg, for the Anglo-Saxon god Wōden, a counterpart of Hermes.

Tucker was always an early riser, so his 0530 alarm buzzing under the pillow was quickly turned off by a well-rested teenager. He noticed he was up before the other three were up, so he decided to go to the bathroom to take care of business before the others was the best idea. As he went past the bed, he noticed that Dash and Danny were awfully close underneath the covers on Fenton's bed, but he didn't care, he had more pressing matters.

The other three boys groaned as Fenton's alarm woke everyone up. Al woke up slightly to lift up and touch the snooze button. Danny woke up and shouted.

"DUDE!"

"Wha–" Al started in response as he noticed that Dash had cuddled Fenton into him.

"huh?" Dash groaned as his blue eyes flitted open.

"GET OFF ME!" Danny yelled.

"Guys, you mind not shouting. I had a nightmare last night. I'm drained," Al said as he rubbed his eyes to get the sleep out of them.

Dash gasped. _SHIT! What's happening, why didn't I wake up first? damn nightmare! Now I'm going to lie… fuck…_

"Sorry, man, I'm used having two pillows and I hug one when I'm sleeping…" Dash lied to the halfa. He turned his attention to the other boy in the room. "You better not say anything Ross."

Albert read his emotion of fright, anger, anxiety, and jealousy in an instant. It wasn't the first time he'd been subjected to the emotion from the blonde, but this was the first time Al thought he could see fire in the sapphire orbs piercing through his soul.

He began to think about the boy in the dream. _I couldn't have dreamt about Dash… I barely know the kid, plus he can't stand me, so why would he be the hopeless child in my dream. Well, I do sense that he's hiding most of his emotions, so I'll just go with the flow of it._

"I wasn't *yawn* thinking about anything, dude. I'm exhausted," Al threw back at him, getting up off the floor.

"Guys, what are you all yelling about? I can hear you down the hall through the bathroom door," Tucker said as he came in stretching his arm above his head.

"Nothing. Not a thing. None of your business," Danny, Al, and Dash all responded.

"Ok, whatever, Sam and your sister are already downstairs. Sounds like another rousing Fenton family plus friends breakfast," Tucker said as he exited the room, heading down the stairs.

"Dude, what's wrong with you?" Al asked Dash as Danny left to go to the bathroom.

"What do you mean, Rossoroni?" Dash responded quickly.

"You're so damn hostile towards me. And every time you're around Danny, you get aggravated at me if I'm the focus of his attention."

"I don't know what you're talking about, man. I'm a very hostile person," Dash said to get the new kid off his back.

"No you're not. You care. Too much. But I think that … your father? … has something to do with your aggressive personality. I think it's a cover-up. I'm betting that if you were rid of your father, or at least have someone that loved you unconditionally, you'd drop that charade of a tough guy," Al spoke intuitively to the blonde.

"DUDE?! THE FUCK?!" Dash screamed.

"Too far?" Al said, cringing his face.

"GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HEAD!" Dash screamed as he bolted down the stairs.

"Ross! What did you do Dash?" Danny said as he came out of the bathroom.

"I, uh, think I over stepped my boundaries reading his emotion… hehe…" Al said, scratching his head, embarrassed.

"Dude! You can't do that to people!" Danny berated the empath, forcing him into the bedroom.

"I'm sorry! I just hate that I can sense all these different emotions in the boy and I can't really do anything about it."

"Well, now what are you going to do?"

"Um, I could try a memory wipe, but in the state I'm in, I doubt it would be very effective. Besides, I'm tired of having to hide from everyone all the time. I _know_ that's how you feel, but at the same time, I've had my powers longer than you. It's exhausting that I can't change the world because I hold proprietary information. It's a curse to know that people are lying to your face and you can't call them on their horseshit without being called a demon," Al said as he sat on the bed.

Danny sat on the bed beside him. "So what do you know about me?"

"No. I'm not telling you information on Dash's emotions."

"But-"

"You'll have to find them out like everybody else in the universe," Al responded.

"Dammit…" Danny whispered under his breath. He was really getting more and more curious about how the blonde football star was feeling about him. He had noticed the difference between the Dash at school and the Dash at his house working on his project.

…

Downstairs:

"Dad, I'm going to take them to school, ok?" Jazz offered.

"Sweetie, that's nice of you, but they all won't fit in the car. You'll have Dash, Sam, Tucker, Danny, _and_ Al. That's five people not including yourself. The six of you simply won't fit," Maddie responded nicely as she passed the box of cereal to Jasmine.

"Oh I'm sure someone will be willing to give up there seat," Sam said, looking straight at Dash. The conversation she had had with Jazz the previous night had left an even bitter taste in her mouth for the quarterback. She wasn't exactly sure herself how she felt about Danny, but she knew that she didn't want Dash to get his grimy hands over her love interest, that was even if it were true that he was interested in Danny.

"Well, it sure as hell won't be me, Manson," Dash sneered back at the Goth, giving her the same dirty look.

"How do you know I was talking about you?" Sam responded.

"Kids! There will be no arguing at breakfast!" Maddie interrupted the two bickering teens. "And as to who is going to school how: I'll take Dash and Al. Jazz, you will take Sam, Tucker, and Danny."

At that precise moment, Al and Danny walked into the chaos known as Wednesday's breakfast time.

"I'm not going to school with him!" shouted both Dash and Al.

"Besides, Mrs. Fenton, I've got to go back to my house and grab my school books," Al spoke before any dissenting opinion from Maddie could be voiced.

"What about your project information for Tolsoyski's class?" Danny inquired as he sat down at the table.

"What about it? I've all the information on the graph downstairs stored on my laptop… Besides, this is like child's play to me. The difficulty is going to teach Paulina all of this information so she can just get a good grade," Al responded with slight disgust as he left the dining room. "I'll catch ya'll at school. See ya later, Fenton, Tucker! Sam, have a good day! Oh and Dashy-boy, I'm sorry about earlier. It was an accident," Al yelled from the door as he shut it behind him.

"What does he mean, Dash?" Maddie inquired.

"Did he show any signs of being a ghost?!" Jack jumped in on the conversation.

"No, he just read my mind. It was a bit freaky," Dash stated as he squirmed in his seat.

"Danny, is Al psychic!?" Maddie asked incredulously.

Danny nearly choked on his cereal. "NO! *cough cough* He's just like Jazz and very obsessed with psychology that he analyzes every person he meets apparently. At least, that's what he told me upstairs," Danny half way lied to his parents. Just what he needed–his parents to go off on some other freaky tangent that consumes most of the family money and time.

"Hey, I resent that fact," Jazz blurted out.

"Is it a lie, Jazz?" Danny quipped back.

"So Jazz, can you take the others to school, now that Al has gone back to his house? Danny, do you know where he lives?" Maddie questioned her two children.

"Um, no I didn't really ask. He said that he was originally from Massachusetts, and that he had a condo here in town, but he never told me where," Danny responded to his mother's question.

"Well, you need to find out. I want to meet his grandmother. I know most of the women in town and I don't remember any of them having a grandson from Massachusetts," Maddie informed her son of his new plans for the day.

"But, Mom-"

"Does it really matter if you know his grandmother," Jazz interrupted her brother. "Besides, it's almost 0800. We're late for school."


	17. Chapter 17

**_So things have been rather crazy in my life. Here is the next chapter._**

The ride to school wasn't as loud as breakfast, but there was a bit of groaning involved. Dash sat in front with Jazz, and the three friends sat in the back seat with Tucker on the middle hump.

"So, Danny, _do_ you know where Al lives?" Jazz spoke up as she pulled out of the carport.

"No. I don't understand, Jazz. Why _does_ Mom want to know where Ross lives?" Danny started, showing his clear confusion to the rearview mirror.

"I don't know, but I'll talk to Mr. Lancer, maybe he could tell me something about the new kid," Jazz said to the rearview, looking at Danny.

Dash looked out the window the whole time. _What about Phantom turns me into a little girl? I don't understand. And that _Ross_ kid. Who in the hell does he think he is, getting into my head like that… I don't believe in psychics or mind-readers, but damn… I'll talk to Mom today after practice. Maybe she'll have some idea why I'm feeling so flustered…_

A blue wisp flew out of Danny's mouth. _Oh, great._

"GHOST CHILD! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"great, skulker…" Danny whispered. There was nothing he could do. Dash was in the car, and as far as he knew, Jazz. So he couldn't go ghost.

"_Horologium turris carcerem_!" Al yelled from above them. "Leave the ghost boy alone!"

"What do you care? Who are you?" Skulker yelled from behind the clock face imprisoning him.

"It doesn't matter who I am, does it? All I care is that you are a specter and as such, I must eliminate you," Al responded from his albatross form.

"I am Skulker, the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter. No one can imprison me for long," Skulker proclaimed as he tried to phase through the clock face, without success. "Why can't I phase through?!"

"Because, Skulker, it's magic. Nothing can penetrate my magic unless I allow it," Al responded to Skulker's question. _"Tell Jazz, to get you guys to school. I'll take care of this buffoon,"_ Al leaked a psychic message to the halfa.

"Jazz, drive!"

"Who is that?" Dash yelled.

"I don't know," Danny responded, in fake shock.

"Looks like he's taking care of the ghost almost as good as Phantom," Dash said, halfway impressed at the albatross like figure floating above them.

"_Leporum transuerso_," Al yelled as he put his hands together, dissolving the clock face prison.

"I don't want you, but if it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get," Skulker retaliated.

"Oh, trust me, boy-o, I'd love a good scrape," Al said as he licked his lips. "This is going to be good."

As Skulker threw his arm out, a laser device appeared and fired a beam of infrared radiation at the warlock.

"Really?" Al stated blandly. "Kussetsu to han'ei." Al placed his hands out, palm forward, together. As the beam of radiation came closer, Al pulled his left hand away from his right, causing the beam to follow. Continuing the motion, Al put his right hand around his back and the radiation circled Al's body.

"How would you like a taste, Skulker?" Al taunted the ghost. He moved his right arm til it was pointing straight away from the side of his body, palm still facing forward. The beam of radiation collected at a point. The color went from blue to white, showing the intensity of the radiation.

"Moyasu!" the warlock said as he threw the collected radiant energy toward the ghost.

"OW!" Skulker proclaimed, as he fell to a rooftop.

_Electronic _William Tell Overture_ plays_.

"What's that, Skulker," Al teased the ghost.

"I've got to fly to the gorilla display."

"Really, now? Leaving so soon," Al inquired of the ghost, as he watched him fly away. "Well, good thing too, I've got to get school."

..

…

In the schoolyard, Al found a place behind the bleachers to change back into his human form. Today he had decided to wear leather boots, a pair of black slacks, a blue blazer with a black shirt with a red design on it underneath, and changed his hair from the blue he'd been sporting for the first two days of the week to a black dye with golden blonde streaks in it. He had also found some leather gloves that had belong to his grandfather at his house and decided to wear them with the cosplay for the day. He had also found some tarot cards in his trunk that sat at the edge of his bed and decided to bring them with him for the day. He ran from the football field to find the trio of friends just then arriving at the school.

"Hey, Al!" Tucker cried from the car as he got out. "Nice cosplay today. Yusei, right?"

Al huffed and puffed for a minute trying to catch his breath. "Yeah. Thought I'd go with something different today," Al said among gasps of air. "Who's Skulker by the way, Danny? He seems to be a complete idiot."

"Yeah, he can be. He's a miniature ghost inside an organometallic robotic suit of armor that likes to collect rare and one-of-a-kind things," Danny said as he motioned toward the school.

"So he's a Cyberman?"

"A what?" Danny questioned.

"Nevermind…" Al said with a sigh, walking to the front doors of the school.

"He's after Danny because he's half ghost, half human."

"I guess Vlad is too powerful of an opponent for him to go after," Sam retorted.

"Who's Vlad," Al said, questioningly.

"Vlad Masters, slash, Vlad Plasmius, my archnemisis. Well, as Masters, my dad's. As Plasmius, mine. All in a crazy attempt to steal my mom away from my dad," Danny halfway explained.

"But why would Skulker not want to hunt this man," Al asked as he charmed his locker open.

"This is the abbreviated story," Sam started, noting that Danny was at that point of not communicating properly, "Vlad Masters and Danny's parents went to college together. Masters had, or should I say _has_, a crush on his mom, and his dad got her. A freak accident that gave Masters his ghost powers. He's used those powers to become a billionaire, build a mansion in Wisconsin, collecting every bit of Green Bay Packer memorabilia ever created it. He even went so far as to try to convince the city to sell him the football team, but they wouldn't. So now, his ultimate plan for Danny is total embarrassment of his father and he wants to date his mom. Plasmius is actually very powerful ghost and if Skulker were truly worth his weight as a hunter, he'd be able to go toe to toe with the Vlad."

"He lives in Wisconsin?! No, no, no, no, no. This can't be true!" Al proclaimed as he put his hands on his ears trying to block out the information. He threw himself against the lockers and slid down them into a ball, trying not to let the memories consume him.

"Al, man, what's wrong?" Tucker exclaimed as he dropped down to console the new kid.

"Wisconsin. It's been eight years since I heard anything about Wisconsin. That's where my parents went the night of my sixth birthday. The last time I've ever saw them, they were headed there," Al managed to gasp out amongst his rapid breathing, clearing showing signs of a panic attack. Everyone in the hallway was looking at him at this point.

"HEY! FENTON!"

"And he's the last person I need or even want to see right now," Al remarked at the quarterback's call.

"Don't worry, I'll send him on his way," Sam said through gritted teeth.

"What's wrong with Rossironi," Dash asked with seemingly genuine concern.

"He's having a panic attack," Danny responded sweetly to the quarterback. It was refreshing to Danny to see Dash showing a more caring side at school.

"Well, I hate to break up his recovery, but we've got to get to class D-Fenton."

"Rude," Sam commented as the two boys left for class.


End file.
